When water and ice combine
by Mariko Akera
Summary: Two taicho go to Hogwarts to help guard Harry. Loosely follows the Harry Potter storyline and is writen in first person POV. Don't like, don't read!
1. Beginning of a long mission

**This is my first try at a crossover between Harry Potter and Bleach. The story will be in a first person POV from either one of the taicho that are going to Hogwarts. One of the taicho is an OC (Yuriko) while the other is Hitsugaya Toshiro. I will alternate the POV between Yuriko and Toshiro with each chapter.**

**This first chapter is from Yuriko's POV (so the next will be from Toshiro's POV)**

**I've used the terms of the Japanese version of Bleach so I'll put a small wordlist here for anyone who might be watching or reading the English anime/manga:**

**Taicho: Captain  
>Fukutaicho: Lieutenant<br>Sotaicho: Leader of the shinigami  
>Haori: white overcoat that the taicho wear<br>Zanpakuto: Soul reaper  
>Shinigami: Death god<br>Kido: The magic the shinigami use (Hado: way of destruction. Bakudo: way of binding)  
>Kyuban tai: ninth division<strong>

**That's about it. Hope you'll enjoy it and please review (no flames! A review should be some sort of feedback that can be used to improve the story and flames are only meant to hurt!) **

**And (and I can't stress this enough) DON'T LIKE, DON'T READ!**

**Disclaimer (for this chapter and any chapter that comes after this one until the story is finished!): I don't own Bleach OR Harry Potter (sad but true)**

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><p><strong>Yuriko POV<strong>

'Come back here!' one of the shinigami from the third division yelled as he and two others were trying to catch up with me. I barked out one hard laugh before putting on one more burst of speed which left the third division men far behind me.

I used shunpo to get back to my family's home quickly, hoping my brother wouldn't be home yet. I took off my shoes at the entrance and tiptoed towards my room. 'Yuriko!' I stood still in an instant, not daring to look behind me. I could already feel my brother's reiatsu rising with his anger. 'Yuriko… where did you go? And why do you have a haori from the third division taicho over your own haori?' I turned around slowly with a bit of a goofy grin on my face. 'Aniki, how are you doing today?' I asked innocently. I was met with a really uncomfortable silence and even more reiatsu from my brother.

I let my grin slip and stood up straight in front of my brother. 'I just had a bet with Renji… that's all…' I trailed off at the end, knowing by the look in my brother's eyes that I had said the wrong thing. 'I see,' he said in a low voice before calling a Hell Butterfly to him. A second later it flew away and my brother motioned to my room. 'Go to your room and wait until I call you,' he said. I nodded and went without a discussion; I always lost that fight. 'And the third division haori if you please.' I huffed and pulled the haori off so that my own was once again visible. My brother took it from me and walked away while shaking his head.

My room was the way I had left it; with a lot of paperwork that I still had to do on my low desk. It was, of course, a privilege to have what I do at my age. I was only a hundred and fifty one years old and had the appearance of an eleven year old. This hadn't held me back though and I had entered the gotei 13. I wasn't the only young one though. A boy by the name of Hitsugaya Toshiro had the same. The only difference between him and me was that I am of noble decent and he isn't.

You see, I am a daughter of the Kuchiki family of which my brother, Byakuya, is the head. My brother is also the head of the sixth division within the gotei 13. Toshiro and I were both really strong and smart and when two positions became vacant in the gotei 13 we took the tests and became taicho. Toshiro is the taicho of the tenth division and I of division nine. Of course there are a lot of good things about being a taicho such as getting respect and a lot of subordinates who do things for you. The down side is… well… the paperwork… I never thought there would be so much paperwork for a taicho.

Toshiro on the other hand didn't really mind doing his paperwork and he had even more than me. His fukutaicho, Matsumoto Rangiku, was kind of lazy and didn't do much with her paperwork which meant Toshiro had to do it most of the time. I was lucky that my fukutaicho, Hisagi Shuhei, actually did his paperwork so I didn't get any extra work. I sighed and sat to work on the pile of papers that were littering my desk; this would at least take the rest of the morning, maybe even a bit of the afternoon.

In the end it didn't take that long. Most of the work just needed filing or signing which meant I was done before the afternoon had started. I went over to my brother to tell him I would go to the ninth division to check on everything there. He waved his hand dismissively to tell me it was alright so I left quickly.

The buildings of my division weren't that far from the Kuchiki house so it took only five minutes to get there. Some of my subordinates were hanging around in front of the barrack gates but snapped to attention the moment they saw me approach. They greeted me properly and with respect and I nodded and smiled at them in acknowledgement. It had taken the others a while to except me as their taicho but no one had a problem with me anymore.

In the beginning they had all taunted me and treated me like a child. They did have respect since I'm from the Kuchiki family but that was it. They listened to my fukutaicho more than to me in those first few years. My fukutaicho hadn't been the same one I had now. Hisagi had been my third seat and Tosen Gin had been my fukutaicho. I had only been a taicho for a month before I had gone to the sotaicho to tell him that I didn't trust Tosen. The sotaicho hadn't listened at that point but he had found out I was right years later. Tosen had, together with Ichimaru Gin from the third division, followed Aizen Sosuke taicho from the fifth division to Hueco Mundo and they had almost destroyed Soul Society.

I got the respect from my squad a year after I had become their taicho. The ninth division got a difficult mission and I decided to lead it myself. I went to the real world with my third seat Hisagi and eight others. The moment we arrived in the real world four menos had appeared and after a few minutes of fighting only Hisagi and me were still standing. We had both come to the same conclusion by then; these menos were not like normal ones. I was young and inexperienced in leading my subordinates in this sort of thing but I couldn't let them die. I had told Hisagi to put up a kido barrier and stay behind it until I was done.

Hisagi had started protesting at first but stopped when he saw the determination in my eyes. The moment he had used his shunpo to get to the others I had released my bankai. My reiatsu alone pushed the menos back which made me smile grimly. My zanpakuto is a water based zanpakuto which means I can literally drown my opponents if I would want to. With these menos I chose the faster way to handle it. I had to use most of my strength and one of my strongest attacks to destroy the menos after which my bankai disappeared and I dropped out of the sky; my energy completely depleted. Hisagi saw what was happening and caught me before I could hit the ground.

I spend a few days healing with division four, which is known for their healing skills, before I went back to my own division. When I came to the doors then, the people standing outside snapped to attention and greeted me with 'good morning, Kuchiki taicho!' I was really taken aback by this but was pleased all together. When I came to my office Hisagi and Tosen had been standing there and had both apologised to me for their, and the rest of the division's, behaviour. Of course later, we had all found out that the strange, stronger menos had come from Aizen. Hisagi had been affected greatly by Tosen's betrayal because he really looked up to him. When I made him my fukutaicho he resisted at first but soon adapted to the position and I could honestly say I was proud to have him as my second in command.

I arrived at my office after checking up on everything and was met by a strong but familiar reiatsu. A smile spread across my face and I ran the last few feet towards my door. I opened my door to be met by a small, white haired boy who was smiling from ear to ear. 'Toshiro!' I squealed before running towards him and giving him a big hug. He hugged me back quickly before I backed up a bit to take a look at him. He had been on a mission in Soul Society and I hadn't seen him in two months. For some people this wouldn't seem that bad but for us it was like missing a piece in our lives.

We had been close friends for almost our entire lives here in Soul Society and we had a connection, you could say we were joined at the hip. We were both looked at weirdly because of our status, age and appearance. Toshiro had snow white hair and teal coloured eyes while I had blood red hair, with sea blue strands in it and violet eyes. People had looked weirdly at us and we had both felt like outcasts, even though I'm from a noble family, until we met each other. We had instantly bonded and had been inseparable even since. Even our Zanpakuto were in sync with each other. My zanpakuto was a water type one and Toshiro had an ice type zanpakuto. We also shared some sort of a connection which told us when the other was in trouble, sort of a psychic thing. Toshiro had felt this the moment I had faced the four extremely strong menos and had arrived a second after Hisagi had caught me. He had been cursing the senkai gate the entire time I was healing; fuming that it was a slow way to go anywhere.

'How was your mission?' I asked while sitting down in my chair. Toshiro shrugged, 'Nothing special, just the usual uproar and hollow breakout.' I nodded in understanding. Sometimes hollow just broke in on the weak sides of Soul Society and when too many came one of the taicho had to clean it up. 'So what have you been up to?' Toshiro asked in return. 'Nothing much… the usual. I did have a bet with Renji today but my brother caught me…' I started to grumble at the end. Toshiro smirked at me 'What was your bet about?' he asked but before I could answer a fukutaicho level reiatsu approached us. 'I think you'll find out now,' I smirked.

Toshiro nodded and went to stand beside my chair. My door opened a second later to reveal Abarai Renji, who wasn't looking too pleased. 'You set me up!' he yelled. Toshiro cleared his throat then and Renji's eyes swerved to him. 'Ah… Hitsugaya taicho… I didn't mean… I mean…' Renji began stuttering while his face flushed red. 'Abarai, I think it is quite rude of you to address a taicho in such a way,' my best friend said with a stern face. The fukutaicho from division six turned as red as his hair now and stopped talking all together, preferring to watch his feet.

I couldn't help but laugh at this which seemed to relax Renji a bit. The red head had known me for a long time and we were never formal with each other. He had been kind of lost when I became a taicho on top of already being royalty but I had told him that nothing had changed between us. 'Now Renji, why do you think I set you up?' I asked innocently. 'With the bet! You involved Kuchiki taicho in it!' Renji's face turned, if possible, even redder when he said this. I shook my head, 'I didn't involve my brother; he caught me so I told him the truth about our bet.' 'Well… I got in trouble for it,' Renji huffed.

'What did you guys do?' Toshiro asked curiously, looking from me to Renji and back again. 'Renji bet me that I wouldn't be able to borrow the third division's taicho haori,' I explained. The room turned colder immediately as Toshiro released a bit of his reiatsu in shock. 'You did what?' he spluttered. 'I took the haori and made it all the way back to the Kuchiki home,' I shrugged. Toshiro shook his head, 'Yuriko, you are a taicho… you should act more responsible by now.' 'I am responsible but I can still have some fun every now and then, can't I?' Toshiro looked like he wanted to say more but Renji intervened. 'Excuse me but if I may be so free, you both act like the kids you are every now and then.'

This was the worst thing he could have said. With a quick glance to Toshiro I got up and faced Renji. 'Bakudo no ichi, Sai!' Renji's arms shot behind him as if a magnetic force had pulled them there. He tried to break free but wasn't able to do so; my kido was too strong for him to break. I smirked at the red head before walking to the sliding door, opening it and stepping aside. Toshiro went to stand on the right side of Renji, 'You really shouldn't have said that, Abarai. Hado no ichi, Sho!' Renji let out a scream as the kido hit him and send him flying out of the office and over the walls surrounding the ninth division buildings. We listened carefully and heard him land a few seconds later with a small thud.

We both burst into laughter then, but stopped again quickly as Hisagi entered my office. 'Taicho, this message was just delivered for you,' he said, handing me an envelope. He bowed to me and went to stand near the door. 'Thank you, Hisagi,' I said before turning to the letter in my hand. Toshiro came to stand behind me and read it with me over my shoulder.

_kyuban tai taicho, Kuchiki Yuriko._

_Please come to the first division building at once. A mission will be explained to you there._

_Ichiban tai sotaicho,_

_Yamamoto genryusai Shigekuni._

I sighed and put the note in my pocket. 'Guess I'll be going now… see you later Shiro-kun.' Toshiro nodded but stopped when a Hell Butterfly flew into my office towards him. He stretched his hand out and the butterfly landed on it. We were both quiet for a second until the little creature flew away again. I looked at him questioningly and he gave me a small smile. 'That was a message from Matsumoto telling me that she had opened my mail', he ground his teeth when he said that, 'and that it said the same as your letter. Guess I'll be going with you to sotaicho-dono,' he said.

I nodded and turned to my fukutaicho who was still standing at the door. 'Hisagi, Hitsugaya taicho and I are going to see sotaicho-dono. I will be back later but please make sure that everything is done as it should while I'm away.' Hisagi nodded, bowed and ran off to give orders to the other squad members. Toshiro and I both stepped into the garden next to my office. I closed the sliding door after which we both used shunpo to get to the first division building as fast as possible.

'Taicho!' A shrill woman's voice shouted as we landed in front of the first division doors. We turned around to see a woman with golden blond hair and a pink sash around her shoulders running towards us. While she was running a few shinigami who were standing a bit to the side whistled at her but she ignored them. 'Taicho! We just got back from a mission and I'm tired and I really don't want to go on another mission and…' Matsumoto began rambling the moment she was standing in front of us. I could see Toshiro starting to get irritated by his fukutaicho and as if on cue the temperature began to drop.

Matsumoto seemed to notice this and quickly stopped talking. It was then that she noticed me, 'Ah, Kuchiki taicho. I am so sorry I didn't greet you earlier,' she said, making a short bow. I nodded back but didn't say anything. 'Matsumoto, the letter didn't say anything about you going on a mission did it?' Toshiro asked his fukutaicho. Matsumoto seemed to think about this for a second before a silly grin spread across her face and she shook her head. 'Now that you mention it taicho… it didn't.' Toshiro shook his head and dismissed his fukutaicho with a wave of his hand, 'I'll see you back at the division Matsumoto and in the mean time you can do your paperwork.' Matsumoto scowled at the last bit but otherwise remained silent as she bowed and used shunpo to get back to the tenth division buildings.

'You don't honestly believe she is going to do her paper work, do you?' I asked. Toshiro shrugged but didn't answer and instead knocked on the first division door. 'You know I sometimes wish I could read Matsumoto's mind so that I could check on what she is really doing,' Toshiro grumbled. Two shinigami from the first division opened the doors then which put a stop to Toshiro's grumbling. The two shinigami bowed to us and let us walk through. I couldn't help myself and looked back to see the two shinigami looking at Toshiro and me with a look of envy on their faces.

'See anything good?' Toshiro asked without looking at me. I shook my head, 'same as always when others look at us; jealous stares,' I explained. Toshiro nodded as we proceeded down the long hallway towards the meeting room. Two more shinigami opened the doors to the meeting room for us when we got there. They both bowed and motioned for us to walk through. The room was empty except for a chair in the back where sotaicho-dono was sitting. Standing behind him was his fukutaicho, Sasakibe Chojiro. Toshiro and I both waited while the door closed behind us. Yamamoto sotaicho discussed something with Sasakibe before he motioned for us to come closer.

Toshiro and I both stopped at a respectable distance and bowed from the waist to show our respect. We then stood still in front of our leader and waited for the old man to give us the information about our new mission. Yamamoto coughed once before he motioned to Sasakibe to hand him something. Sasakibe pulled two heavy looking envelopes from his uniform and handed them to Yamamoto. The old man held the envelopes but didn't open them. Instead he looked at Toshiro and me with an intense stare as if wanting to look through us. I was starting to feel uncomfortable and could see that Toshiro wasn't feeling much better when Yamamoto cleared his throat. 'I have an important but long mission for the both of you,' he said with a grave voice. 'It seems that a problem we thought had been dealt with has returned. An old foe we thought was dead is gaining power and we believe his goal is to once again rule and spread fear.' Toshiro and I both nodded but didn't say anything although I had the feeling I knew what Yamamoto sotaicho was talking about.

'I think you might know who I am talking about, no?' Yamamoto asked. I nodded but it was Toshiro who replied, 'Lord Voldemort.' Yamamoto nodded with a grim look on his face. I could understand why sotaicho-dono was this grim. Voldemort had been a big problem ten years ago. He had ruled what was known as the wizarding-world with his evil followers, but had met his end at the hands of a small boy. Voldemort hadn't been a danger to Soul Society at first but the moment he discovered the existence of hollow he had become a serious threat to both the living world and Soul Society.

'Is he back then, sotaicho-dono?' I asked quietly. I could feel the air around me cool down which meant that Toshiro was tensing up. I let out a bit of my own reiatsu to meld the ice crystals that had grown on Yamamoto's cane. 'No, he isn't back but our resources tell that he is gaining power again,' Yamamoto explained. 'One more thing will happen this year and that will be the main focus of your mission. As you all know it was a small boy by the name of Harry Potter who stopped Voldemort ten years ago', Toshiro and I both nodded, 'and this boy is now the proper age to go to magic school. This however could be quite dangerous with Voldemort around, gaining strength. Also, Harry Potter has a high level of magic which might attract hollow to him. As long as he was with his aunt and uncle he was protected by some magic power but we are not sure whether this will still be so when he goes to school.'

'So our mission would be to watch this Harry Potter until he is a qualified wizard?' I asked. 'Not quiet,' Sotaicho-dono replied. 'You will be watching him but not from above in shinigami form. You two will be watching him as fellow students for the next seven years.' My mouth fell open in shock at this statement. Toshiro and I were to go to the real world and mingle with magical humans for seven years? 'Don't you have to be magical to begin with in order to go to that school?' Toshiro asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. 'Yes and it so happens that the last time you two were in the real world the headmaster of the wizard school picked up your magical signal, apparently it is quite strong. He has sent this letter', Yamamoto sotaicho held up the envelopes he was holding, 'in which he invites you two to his school, Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry.'

Yamamoto sotaicho handed us both an envelope and nodded approvingly to tell us it was alright to open them. I was surprised to feel parchment instead of paper under my fingers but decided to ignore that for now. The letters, yes there were multiple letters, were also parchment and the letters on them were written in a curved handwriting with green ink. Before I read the letters I turned the envelope over and was startled by the address written on it and I could hear Toshiro having the same reaction. The letter _was_ for me but the address kind of shocked me.

_Miss Yuriko Kuchiki_

_Karakura, Japan_

_Urahara store_

_Front porch_

I couldn't believe that these wizards knew about the store or that I had been there. Of course all of us shinigami went there for certain devices and of course for a gigai but I had never imagined that anyone beside shinigami would know. I glanced sideways to Toshiro and saw that his address was the same. He then met my gaze and nodded slightly to indicate that we should read the letters inside the envelope. The first letter was one to welcome us to the school and the second letter was a list of things we had to buy. I stopped at the word "wand" and looked at Yamamoto sotaicho again. 'It says we need a wand… they can't be serious, can they?' I asked tentatively.

One of Yamamoto's rare smiles appeared on his face and he nodded. 'I am afraid so Kuchiki. You will need a wand in order to follow lessons at the school.' I sighed because this would mean I would be trading my zanpakuto, Ryusuika, for a piece of wood! 'Sotaicho-dono, what of the aging problem. If we are to go to that school for seven years people will start to notice that Kuchiki taicho and I don't age,' Toshiro said seriously. 'Please forgive me but I have read your letters when they arrived and have already arranged a special pill that will help you age for seven years, starting on your first school day. You will also get gigai's that will grow as you grow so you don't have to worry about that,' Sotaicho-dono answered.

Toshiro and I looked at each other, asking with our eyes what the other thought of the mission. An understanding was quickly formed between us and I nodded to Toshiro to tell Yamamoto sotaicho. 'We accept this mission and will guard this Harry Potter with our lives.' Yamamoto sotaicho nodded and dismissed us soon after that to go and pack. It was already late in August so we had to hurry and go to London to buy our supplies for our mission and school.

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><p><strong>So... that was the first chapter. Please let me know what you think by reviewing this chapter. And once again, no flames please! thanks :)<strong>

**~Marieke~**


	2. Diagon Alley

**Here's the second chapter from Toshiro's POV. Enjoy ^_^**

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><p><strong>Toshiro POV<strong>

I was looking down at the large, unknown trunk that now stood open in my office and there were bundles of clothing in it that I had never seen before in my life. I had just returned from Yamamoto sotaicho only to find my room ransacked and this trunk in my office. 'Matsumoto!' I yelled, knowing that she was the only one who would do this. Said fukutaicho appeared in the doorway a second later holding another pile of clothing which was hiding her face from view. 'Taicho! You're back.' She said through all the clothes. She walked into the room and dropped the load onto my desk causing the school papers and an envelope from sotaicho-dono I had put upon the papers to fly through the room.

'Oops,' the golden blond woman whispered as she started to grab the now flying papers. I shook my head and sat down behind my desk looking at the woman to whom I had to hand over the division's responsibilities. 'Got them!' Matsumoto said happily. She walked over to me proudly and handed me the papers. I snatched them from her hands and put them safely in my uniform. 'Matsumoto, as you apparently know I will be going to the real world for some time which means that you will have to bear the responsibility as head of the tenth division.' 'Yes yes taicho, I know but would you please take a look at the clothing I packed for you? Aren't they great?' Matsumoto asked happily.

I slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand before getting up and walking around my desk to look inside the trunk. I only looked at it for a few seconds before turning back to my second in command. 'Yes it's great, now about the responsibility— 'Taicho! You didn't take a proper look,' Matsumoto whined, successfully interrupting what I wanted to say. 'MATSUMOTO! Whether the clothes are fine or not is not my concern at the moment! My concern is that you will have to be the head of the division at least until Christmas,' I growled.

Matsumoto looked taken aback for a few seconds before she regained her composure and started to smile at me. 'Everything will be just fine, Taicho,' my happy fukutaicho said, waving her hand dismissively at me. I sighed and decided to just give up. 'This is an envelope in which all your duties are written down. Read it, remember it, live by it,' I ordered her before turning to my bookcases to find some books I might want to read while on the mission. When I turned around to put the books in my trunk I found Matsumoto gone but I didn't mind. Packing without her around would be much easier.

Half an hour later I was waiting at the gate that would lead Yuriko and me to the real world. Ukitake taicho and Kyoraku taicho were there to see us off as were Hinamori and Matsumoto. Yuriko appeared at my side after a few minutes of waiting. She put down her trunk and I could tell she was excited to go. Her brother, Kuchiki taicho, sister Rukia and Hisagi fukutaicho soon appeared as well and thus made our send off party complete. We said goodbye to everyone and were told where to find our gigai's by Kyoraku. Ukitake then gave us both a bright red pill which, he told us, was the growth pill Sotaicho-dono had told us about before. We both took the pill, Yuriko pulling a weird face as she did, before turning towards the gate. Ukitake taicho snapped his fingers and the gate opened. We picked up our trunks and stepped in, saying goodbye to our home for at least six months.

The gate opened in a small alley and the first thing I noticed was that the summer in Great Britain wasn't nearly as warm as in Japan. I enjoyed the cool breeze on my skin and decided that I would at least enjoy the cool weather here. 'Toshiro! I found our gigai's!' Yuriko called from a few meters ahead of me. I picked up my trunk again and dragged it to where Yuriko was standing. She had already picked up her body and a second later the gigai opened its eyes and breathed in. 'I rather like this gigai, it actually fits properly and the movement is way better than the ones I have used before. You try yours Shiro-kun.'

I nodded and walked over to my gigai. I always hated these things, but it was the only way we could interact in the human world. I closed my eyes and stepped into the gigai and found out that Yuriko had been right. This gigai wasn't as bad as the others, which was probably because we would grow in them and they would have to last seven years. I growled inwardly at the prospect of seven years of school but on the other hand I felt honoured. No other shinigami had ever been invited to go to the wizard school and I had to admit I kind of looked forward to learning other magic than kido.

I stretched in the gigai a couple of times before standing up and looking at Yuriko who was holding one of the letters that had been send to us. 'It says here that the entrance to the shopping street Diagon Alley is at the back of a pub called the Leaky Cauldron.' 'Great… and where might that be?' I asked. Yuriko shrugged and started walking to the end of the alley we were now in, dragging her trunk behind her. 'Not bothered to carry the thing?' I asked coming up behind her while _properly_ carrying my trunk. 'I guess your right…' my friend said. She picked up her trunk, which was now scratched on the bottom, just as we walked out of the alley and onto a busy shopping street.

We walked past a lot of different pubs but none of them were called the Leaky Cauldron. 'This is hopeless,' I huffed after walking around for an hour and asking several people the way only to be met by questioning faces and people saying they didn't know any pub called the Leaky Cauldron. Yuriko nodded and put her trunk down. 'So now what then? We have to find that pub,' Yuriko said exasperatedly, sitting down on her trunk and leaning her head in her hands. I shook my head in defeat and looked up at the sky already wishing I was back in Soul Society when my eyes fell on the sign above the grimy looking building which was just a few meters away. 'I think I got the solution,' I said with a smirk on my face. Yuriko looked up and followed my gaze and I could she her violet eyes light up.

'Finally!' she exclaimed and she rushed to the little pub. 'Yuriko… Your trunk,' I grumbled, but I was met with deaf ears. I reluctantly picked up my own trunk and Yuriko's trunk en stomped over to the pub's entrance. Yuriko opened the door for me and I struggled to get the trunks inside before Yuriko closed the door behind us. 'Thanks Shiro-kun,' Yuriko said in a sing-song voice as she took her trunk from me again. 'Sure sure, let's just check-in and ask how to get into that shopping-alley thing,' I muttered and started walking towards the counter.

A middle-aged man, round, large man stood behind the counter apparently drying glasses, but with a dirty towel. He put the glass he was holding down and looked from Yuriko to me and back again. We waited for him to talk, but when it became apparent that he wasn't going to do so I decided to speak up. 'My friend and I were wondering whether you have any rooms available.' The bartender looked around before he addressed us. 'You two here alone? Where are you parents?' I sighed inwardly and looked at Yuriko for an answer. 'We were dropped here and we want to stay until we have to go to the school train,' Yuriko said confidently. The bartender looked into Yuriko's eyes as if to find a lie in them but couldn't find one. This didn't really surprise me, Yuriko was the best liar I knew and I had been around for quite some time and had met a lot of people.

'Well then… let's see what I can do for you to kids.' I growled softly at the word "kid" and I heard Yuriko do the same while the large, round man went away to grab a big book. 'Okay, we have two rooms available on the third floor. Will you be paying in advance or on the check-out date?' 'Check out-date,' Yuriko replied. The bartender nodded and scribbled something down before turning the book towards us. 'Sign here then, one of you will do.' Yuriko nodded to me so I grabbed the quill, why it was a quill no idea, and signed below the reservation. 'Well mister… Hitsu…gaya?' I nodded for him to continue. 'My name is Tom and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.' He handed us the keys to our rooms and I turned around to go to said room, but Yuriko had other plans. 'It's nice to meet you Tom. My name is Yuriko Kuchiki and my friend here is Toshiro Hitsugaya,' Yuriko introduced us, making a slight bow as she said her own name.

Tom bowed back hesitantly before I grabbed Yuriko's arm and dragged her away. We made our way to the third floor and found our rooms easily. They were across from each other which was perfect. I gave Yuriko her key and turned to enter my room. The key turned easily enough and the door swung open with a creaking sound. I could hear Yuriko's door do the same so I guess is was normal for the old pub. The room was… nice. Nothing special and definitely different from my room at Soul Society. There was an old wardrobe to the left and a double bed in the back across from the door.

I put my trunk in front of the wardrobe not bothering to take my clothes out of it; we would be leaving in seven days anyway. I sat down on the bed and was about to open the envelope from Yamamoto sotaicho when Yuriko walked in, holding a key in her hand and smiling from ear to ear. 'I'm guessing that the key in your hand has something to do with the ridiculous large smile on your face?' I asked sceptically. 'Yep because this, my white haired friend, is a key to… a… VAULT!' Yuriko finished her sentence in a loud squeak. I clasped my hands over my ears and glared at the redhead in front of me.

'Shiro… Are you alright?' Yuriko asked concerned. She leaned forward to look into my eyes only to have half of her vision blocked by a blue strand of hair which fell in front of her right eyes. 'I'm fine aoi-chan,' I told her, pulling slightly on her blue hair. She pulled back and scowled at me before tucking the strand of hair behind her ear. I was finally able to open the envelope I had been given and found a key, which looked the same as the one Yuriko was holding, and a letter. I read the letter quickly before putting it away and getting up. 'I guess we'll have to go and get our money,' I stated. Yuriko nodded and walked ahead of me to the door. 'Why would you be excited about the vault and money anyway? It's not as if the Kuchiki family doesn't have any money,' I asked while we were walking down the stairs. 'It's always nice to have money and I'm just really excited to have my own for a change,' Yuriko shrugged. I had to agree with her on this. The letter from Yamamoto sotaicho clearly stated that the money in our respective vaults was ours which meant we could use it the way we wanted to.

When we were down we saw that bartender Tom was once again drying glasses with his dirty rag and looked up as we approached the bar. 'Ah, it's you two kids,' he said with a slight smile on his face. Yuriko prodded me and I looked at her questioningly. 'If he calls me "kid" one more time I swear I will use a very powerful Bakudo on him,' Yuriko whispered through her teeth. 'I understand but you can't do that, we have to keep a low profile.' Yuriko glanced at me and raised her right eyebrow before she looked back and sighed. 'You're right but it's really frustrating to be addressed as if we're children when we are taicho back home,' she grumbled.

I had to agree with her, this was going to get really annoying. Tom was still smiling at us, waiting for us to speak. 'We need to go to Diagon Alley to buy our school supplies but we don't know where it is,' I told the bartender. He nodded and put down his glass and rag before motioning for us to follow him. He led us out the back door and into a small backyard with no door except for the one we had just gone through. 'This is a dead end,' Yuriko stated, looking at Tom as if he had lost his mind. Tom however smiled at her, which made her grit her teeth again, and pulled out a piece of wood which I assumed was a wand. He then tapped a couple of bricks in a certain order and stepped back. Before our eyes the wall moved and in a few seconds an archway was created. Yuriko and I stepped through the archway and onto what could only be Diagon Alley.

We walked onto the street and turned around to see that the wall was once again archway free. 'So much for asking help from Tom with directions and such,' Yuriko sighed. I nodded and started looking around the street. The weirdest shops lined both sides of the street and the people who were walking around were anything but normal. They were all wearing long robes and cloaks and all in different colours. I shook my head; these people were really nuts. The nuts people were also looking at us as they walked by and I guess that our hair would attract some attention here as well. 'I think I've located the bank.' Yuriko said. I looked to the right at where she was pointing and my eyes met a large marble white building at the end of the street.

Before I could say anything Yuriko started walking towards it so I decided to follow her. The inside of the building was the same as the outside; white marble. Apparently wizards weren't really original. We walked up to a very wide, long desk and had to look up when we stood in front of it. I was beginning to wonder if we were really that short until I could see a girl with bushy brown hair standing at a desk who had the same problem. The difference however between her and us was that she had her parents with her who did the talking for her. I ignored this little fact and looked up the counter to see a grim and hairy looking man thing look down at me.

'Can I help you to with anything?' the man thing asked in a nasal voice. 'Yes, we would like to get some money from our vaults,' Yuriko said, handing the man thing her key. He then turned to me to give him the other key before motioning for us to follow him. He led us to the end of the counter and jumped down from a platform to guide us further. I was a bit shocked when he appeared to be smaller than Yuriko and me but recovered soon as no one else in the building was looking at the man thing in a weird way. The man thing led us into some kind of cave and motioned for us to get into a weird cart while he himself stepped on the back of the thing. 'Hold on tight,' he grumbled and before I could ask why we were racing down a tunnel at an alarming speed.

We stepped outside again thirty minutes later, each of us with a bag of strange money tucked into our pockets. I pulled out my school list and stared down at what we would need. 'I think we should go get our robes first,' I mused. Yuriko nodded and we started off in search of a shop that might have school robes for us. We walked past several shops and I made several mental notes for shops which would help us with other articles on our long list. We stopped in front of a shop called Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and decided that this would be the safest bet if we wanted our school robes.

A little bell sounded as we opened the door and a squat which who was dressed in bright violet robes smiled up at us. 'Hogwarts dears?' she asked, showing a few golden teeth. We nodded and she motioned for us to follow her to the back of the store where we had to stand on a small platform. The moment we stood still on the small platform a measuring tape flew towards us and started measuring everything. 'First years I assume?' the woman, who I think is Madam Malkin, asked. 'Yes Madam,' I answered politely, while watching the measuring tape going up and down and left and right on its own.

After a few more minutes of measuring Madam Malkin came towards us and grabbed both tapes. She looked at them for a second before muttering "ah yes" to herself. 'Uhm… everything okay?' Yuriko asked quietly. 'Oh yes dear, the robes will be done in about thirty minutes. Do you two have anything else you need to buy?' 'Yes, we need loads more,' Yuriko said. 'You can go buy that then and in the meantime I'll make these robes. Do you also require a cloak?' I grabbed my list and looked down. 'Yes, it says here we need one winter cloak.' 'Lovely, it will all be ready when you get back.' We thanked Madam Malkin and got out of the shop to find the other things on our list.

'We can get our books next,' Yuriko suggested, pointing at the bookstore we had passed earlier. A few minutes later we walked out of the store, both of us holding a large and heavy bag with books. I looked back at the name of the store and shook my head. 'Why anyone would name a bookstore Flourish and Blotts is beyond me,' I muttered to Yuriko who had to work hard not to giggle too loudly.

Next we bought our potion ingredients and cauldron which only left a wand and a pet animal. 'Wand first?' Yuriko asked. 'I guess that is the best option,' I replied. We made our way to a shop called Olivander's which was near the bookstore. The shop didn't look like much from the outside but the man who had sold us our potions kits had said it was the best place to go for a wand. A tinkling bell sounded from somewhere in the back of the shop when we entered and a second later an old man appeared from the back. 'Welcome you curious ones,' he said in a soft, mysterious voice. Yuriko and I both bowed slightly to the man but otherwise remained quiet as the man had already walked towards one of the shelves. 'Let's see… maybe this one… no… wait, here it is!' the man who I presumed was Olivander exclaimed. He pulled a small, slim box from the shelf and walked over to us.

He stopped in front of Yuriko, opened the box and handed her a slim piece of wood. The moment Yuriko's hand touched the wand flowers exploded from the tip, but before either of us could react to this Olivander had snatched the wand away. He waved his own wand and the flowers disappeared in an instant. Olivander put the box on the counter and walked around the corner and out of sight, once again muttering to himself. Yuriko gave me a questioning look which I answered with a shrug.

Olivander came back then with a dozen boxes in his hands. This time he gave me a wand but when I touched it nothing happened. 'Well… give it a wave.' Olivander said as if it was something I should have known. I waved the wand and the cash register flew from the counter and into the wall. Before I could even apologise he had snatched the wand away and picked up another wand and gave it to Yuriko. This went on and on and I was beginning to wonder whether any of these wands were meant for us when he picked two boxes and looked curiously from us to the boxes and back. 'I wonder if you two are the ones for these twin wands. Holly and dragon heartstring. Eleven inches. Supple,' he said. 'What do you mean sir?' I asked. I looked at the wands in the boxes and they looked identical except for the handles. One of them had a snow white handle while the other had an ocean blue handle.

'Well, pick them up and see what happens.' We both picked up the wands at the same time. The moment I held the wand I could feel a kind of power flowing through me that I had never felt before. I could feel the temperature dropping slightly and was amazed to see the ground around my feet had actually turned to ice. Yuriko was having about the same reactions as I had with one exception. She didn't have ice around her feet; she was now standing in a small puddle of water though her feet didn't get wet.

I looked back to Olivander and the old man was smiling at us as if his lifelong dream had come true. 'The wand chooses the wizard, and these have obviously chosen you two,' he said happily. He took the wands from us and put them back in the boxes. We followed him to the counter where he wrapped them for us. After we paid for the wands I wanted to leave but Yuriko held me back. 'What did you mean when you said you were wondering about these wands sir?' Yuriko asked. 'Ah yes. You see every family member who has owned this store has only made wands when they felt like the wand would be needed.' 'Needed sir?' I asked, my curiosity getting the best of me. 'Yes, needed by its wielder,' Olivander explained. 'Like when a witch or wizard is born?' Yuriko asked. 'Precisely and sometimes even before that witch or wizard is born. I feel what kind of wand it has to be and then I make it like my father before me and his father before him. I just don't know who the wand will be for and whether it will be a witch or a wizard.'

'But what's so special about our wands?' I asked, still not fully understanding what was so interesting. 'I have had these wands in my possession from the moment I took over the store from my father and his father had made them when my father was just a toddler. I thought no one would ever come so you might understand why I was surprised when the wands chose you two.' Olivander told us. I nodded and looked at the small package in my left hand. I already knew why the wands had been made so long ago. Yuriko and I had been born in the same year, month, day, time, minute and even second.

We could have been twins if it hadn't been for the fact that we were from different families. We had even died at the same year, day and time but in a different way. I had frozen to death and Yuriko had been shot and thrown in the ocean while still alive. She had bled to death and drowned at the same time which made my death look like a walk in the park. The way we had died was reincarnated into our looks. We had both been typical Japanese people with black hair and dark brown eyes, but when I came to Soul Society my hair had turned snowy white and my eyes a teal blue. Yuriko's hair had turned blood red with sea blue strands and her eyes had become violet, a combination of the two hair colours.

Olivander's voice pulled me out of my thoughts again. 'Well, I don't know how this happened with the wands but I hope you'll enjoy them,' he said. We both thanked him once again and left the store. We were both still in deep thought as we made our way to Madam Malkin to get our robes but snapped out of it when madam Malkin made us fit the robes to see if the size was right. The robes and cloak fit perfectly so we thanked madam Malkin and paid for our robes. The only thing left on the list was a pet. We had already decided to not buy a toad during our shopping; I mean, who would want a toad for a pet? We were both drawn to a cat and owl so we decided to buy both and make them our pets.

We went to Eeylops Owl Emporium as we figured it would be best to take the owl with us to buy a cat as we needed to be sure that the cat wouldn't attack the owl. When we entered the store a lot of noise met our ears. Owls of all sizes were sitting in cages hanging from the ceiling, standing on the sides and even on the counter. Yuriko and I walked to one of the cages immediately without even glancing at the others. 'Excuse me miss,' Yuriko called to the woman behind the counter. 'Yes dear?' 'I was wondering how much this owl would cost,' Yuriko said without looking away from the bird. The woman looked at the bird Yuriko was staring at. 'That is a Northern spotted owl,' the woman stated. 'It costs ten galleons.' Yuriko nodded, picked up the cage and gave the woman ten galleons. 'Are you sure you don't want to look around some more?' The woman asked. 'This owl is quite difficult to handle.' I shook my head and looked up at the woman. 'This is the bird for us madam,' I told her. The woman shrugged and walked to the back of the store while muttering something about stubborn kids.

We walked out of the shop where Yuriko stopped and looked at the owl again. 'So… what should we name him?' I asked. 'Shota… his name will be Shota,' Yuriko said. I nodded and looked at the bird again, his name did suit him. Shota hooted happily as Yuriko told him his name and I was sure that he would be the perfect bird for us.

The last thing on our long list would be our cat. We had only passed one pet shop called Magical Menagerie so we went back there. The moment I opened the door the noise of all the different animals inside hit me. Yuriko followed me inside and closed the door behind her before we set off to the corner that read "cats". As had happened before at Eeylops Owl Emporium we were drawn to one cat. She was completely white except for her paws, ears and the tip of her tail which had a reddish brown colour. Yuriko looked at me and smiled, 'this one?' I nodded and picked up the little kitten. The man behind the counter gave us a carrying basket for the little thing and told us the total would cost three galleons. We paid him and I picked up the basket in which the cat now sat. 'All we need now is a name for our little kitten,' Yuriko mused. I nodded and looked at the kitten which had already fallen asleep. 'What about Setsuna?' I asked. 'Calm snow… That does suit her.' Yuriko said happily.

We made our way back to the Leaky Cauldron, ready to sit down for a bite to eat, only to be blocked by the wall separating Diagon Alley from the pub. I scowled at the wall and started looking for the slim box that held my wand. 'Don't bother Shiro-kun,' Yuriko said, pulling her wand from the slim box. She tapped the bricks we had seen Tom tap a few hours earlier and the archway once again opened before us. 'I kept my wand close because of this little problem,' Yuriko said smirking as she slipped her wand back in the box and in one of her bags. I shrugged and walked through the archway and into the pub. Tom greeted us with a friendly smile and wave which we returned with a nod as our hands were full with bags, a cage and a carrying basket.

After we had dropped all our bags in our rooms and Yuriko had let Shota out to fly, apparently owls came back to their owners on their own where ever the owner was; we went down for a bite to eat. The pub had become a lot busier while we were putting away our shopping items. Almost all the tables were occupied but luckily there was a table left empty near the bar. 'What can I get you two?' Tom asked from behind the counter. 'Just give us something to eat. We're not from around here so we don't know what the specialties are,' I told Tom. He nodded and gave us two glasses and a flask with orange liquid before moving to the other side of the counter, hopefully to get our food. 'What is this stuff?' Yuriko asked as she poured herself some of the liquid.

'T-t-t-that is p-p-p-pumpkin j-j-juice,' a man said from behind me. I jumped a bit and turned around to see who had scared me like that. A young man with a turban on his head stood behind me with a nervous grin on his face. 'Pumpkin juice?' I asked sceptically. The man nodded and motioned for us to try it. I looked back to Yuriko who smelt at the drink for a second before she took a small sip. 'Well?' I asked. 'It's weird… but nice,' Yuriko said and she took another, larger sip. 'I-is there anyt-t-thing else I can h-h-help you with?' the man stuttered. 'No thank you, we're fine,' I told him with a hint of finality in my tone. The man took the hint and left us to go and sit on the other side of the pub where he started muttering to himself.

Tom brought us our food a few minutes later. 'Here you go, enjoy,' he said. 'Thank you Tom,' Yuriko said. He wanted to walk away but I held him back. 'Do you know who the man in the turban is?' I asked, glancing at the stuttering guy again. 'Ah, that would be professor Quirrell. He will be your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts,' Tom explained. 'He's a little skittish because of something that happened on his vacation in Albania this summer but he's a nice enough guy.' I nodded absentmindedly and could see Yuriko do the same. Tom looked from me to Yuriko and back before shaking his head and walking back to the bar.

'I don't trust that Quirrell guy,' I finally said. Yuriko nodded, 'I could sense a spirit… or soul with him… Though I don't know what this means,' she said thoughtfully. 'I know… well I guess we'll have plenty of time to figure that out when we're at school carrying out our mission. We should report this though,' I said. Yuriko nodded and pulled her communicator out of her pocket, but to her and my surprise the screen was blank. Yuriko pushed a couple of buttons which caused the communicator to spring to life. It was still impossible to do anything with it though as the screen was only showing a snowy pattern.

'Ah, yes. The more magic there is in the air the more it will block the muggle things that use a plug,' Tom told us. He had come back to our table to refill our pumpkin juice flask and was eyeing the communicator with interest. Yuriko sighed, put the communicator away and took a bite of mashed potato. Tom soon moved on to other tables which made it possible for us to talk a bit more freely. 'I guess we can try calling a hell butterfly later and if that doesn't work we can always sent Shota with a letter to Urahara-san,' Yuriko said with a sigh. 'And I'm afraid we're going to have to keep an eye on that professor Quirrell from the moment we get to the school,' I added. Something about him didn't feel right and I knew Yuriko had the same feeling. Something was wrong and it was up to us to find out what.

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><p><strong>Please review ^_^ It would mean a lot to me and feedback will help me improve my writing :)<strong>

**~Marieke~**


	3. The school year begins

**I want to thank 10th Squad 3rd Seat and TheBlackSeaReaper for reviewing the first two chapters! and thanks to those who put my story on alert ^_^**

**I was also told that I made a small mistake in the first chapter. Where it says "and Tosen Gin had been my fukutaicho" it's supposed to say "and Tosen Kaname had been my fukutaicho".**

**So, the 3rd chapter from Yuriko's POV :) enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Yuriko POV<strong>

Toshiro and I spend the next two days reading all the school books we had bought. It wasn't difficult at all and the books were quite interesting. When we finished reading I had to admit I was looking forward to trying out some of these spells. At least the spells were easy enough to remember. They were all very short so nothing could go really badly wrong. The incantations for the kido spells were way more difficult so remembering these spells would be like a walk in the park.

We spend the rest of the days walking around Diagon Alley and looking at the different shops. The shop owners had become accustomed to us by now, but all the other people walking up and down Diagon Alley were still looking at us as if we were extremely dangerous. We had even heard people speculate about whether we had been hit by a bad curse or jinx while we were eating ice-cream. I had wanted to tell them that this was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard, but Florean Fortescue, the owner of the ice-cream shop, had beat me to it. He told the other two who were talking about Toshiro and me to stop their conversation at once. He then winked at us and continued with his work.

It was now the first of September and we were standing in front of the Leaky Cauldron with our trunks, Shota in his cage and Setsuna in her basket. I sighed again and looked up and down the street to see whether the ordered taxi was coming. I would love to just grab everything and walk to King's Cross but that would draw a lot of unwanted attention. Two eleven year olds normally wouldn't be able to carry things as heavy as our trunks for more than a few meters. Toshiro was being very quiet beside me but I could see his eyes scanning the street for the taxi.

I was about to go back into the pub to ask Tom what time the taxi would be here when I heard a car approach. Toshiro let out a relieved sigh when he saw the taxi coming. The taxi stopped in front of us and the driver got out to help us with our luggage. He looked at Shota and Setsuna for a second before loading our trunks in the back of the car and motioning for us to take our animals with us into the back seat.

The trip to the train station went quite well and when we were out of the pub my communicator worked again. I sent a message to Soul Society about the strange professor and about the fact that the communicator wouldn't work when we were at Hogwarts or anywhere near a magical place.

King's Cross was officially a chaos. Where were the clear signs saying where you had to go and why weren't there signs on the platforms where the doors would be? Toshiro and I dragged our trunks towards the station where we checked which way we had to go. As we had already kind of expected, our train wasn't on the board. I grabbed my ticket and checked the platform that was written on it. 'Platform nine and three-quarters… Do you think that even exists?' I asked sceptically. Toshiro just shrugged and started to look around the station. 'This way,' he said. He started walking to platforms nine and ten where an entire red haired family was walking, all of them with a large trunk.

'Packed with muggles, of course―' a short plump woman said exasperatedly. This made me curious as I had read something about muggles in one of the textbooks. Toshiro had heard it as well and we both started walking towards the family. A young boy with dark hair and green eyes was also walking towards the family and he too had an owl with him. Before we could say anything the woman told one of her sons, the oldest by the look of it, to go first. Toshiro and I watched in amazement as the boy, Percy as the woman had called him, ran up to the barrier between platform nine and ten but didn't crash. He just disappeared right before our eyes. Next were twins, Fred and George apparently, and they too disappeared without a trace.

I concentrated on the barrier and could feel low waves of magic coming from it, too low for normal humans to feel. Toshiro was probably sensing it too but didn't linger on it. Instead he walked towards the red haired woman. 'Excuse me, could you please tell my friend and me how to get onto the platform?' my white haired companion asked politely. The woman turned around and when she saw Toshiro and me her mouth fell open.

She noticed what she was doing a second later, snapped her mouth shut and gave us both a warm smile. 'Of course my dears. You too dear?' she asked the green eyed boy. He looked a bit taken aback, as if it surprised him she was talking to him, but nodded anyway. 'Not to worry… All you have to do is walk straight to the barrier between platform nine and ten. You can go first if you want to,' she explained. Toshiro and I nodded and put our trolleys so that we were facing the barrier properly. Toshiro started running first but I was right behind him. The moment we were supposed to hit the barrier it disappeared and a large wrought-iron archway was where the ticket box had been moments before.

A second later we were met by a magnificent sight. A large scarlet steam engine with the words "Hogwarts Express" written on the front was waiting on the track. The sign above the platform said "Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock" but we didn't really need the sign or the name on the train to know that we were in the right place. We started walking towards the train when the green eyed boy appeared behind us. 'Wow,' he whispered as he looked at the train, the sign and the archway. 'Like it?' I asked. The boy looked at us and nodded slowly. 'I'm Yuriko by the way, Yuriko Kuchiki,' I said, holding out my hand for him to shake as was custom in Great Britain.

The boy hesitated for a second before grabbing my hand and shaking it. 'I'm Harry, Harry Potter,' he said with a slight smile. I looked at Toshiro knowingly and he gave me a curt nod in understanding, this was the boy of our assignment. 'I'm Toshiro Hitsugaya,' Toshiro introduced himself and he also shook Harry's hand. Harry looked weary at us and I decided to ask the question for him. 'You want to know where we're from and why we look the way we do, don't you?' Harry looked taken aback but nodded slowly anyway. 'We're from Japan which is why our names sound differently and we were born the way we look,' Toshiro explained with a shrug.

Harry nodded and cheered up a little at this. 'We… we'd better find a compartment to sit in,' Harry said, sounding a bit insecure. 'I guess you're right,' I replied cheerfully. Before Harry could react or Toshiro could object I grabbed my trolley and set off down the platform in search of some seats. The boys followed me a bit reluctantly, but I wasn't bothered by this. We passed a lot of students and their parents who were all looking weirdly at Toshiro and me but didn't say anything.

We found an empty compartment soon. Toshiro had loaded his and Harry's trunk into the train and was about to get mine when the red haired twins showed up. 'Can we help you with anything young lady?' the one called George asked with a smile on his face. 'Yes please, that would be really great,' I replied with a sweet smile. The twins had my trunk inside in a second and were very pleased with themselves. 'We didn't introduce ourselves, did we?' they all but declared in unison. 'No you didn't and here we were looking so forward to that,' Toshiro said as sarcastically as possible. I nudged him with my elbow before turning back to the twins. 'I'm Yuriko Kuchiki and this sarcastic white guy here is my best friend Toshiro Hitsugaya,' I said. 'Well, my name is Fred― 'and my name is George,' the twins said. 'And you are?' they then asked Harry. 'Oh… I'm Harry, Harry Potter,' Harry mumbled, a light blush appearing on his cheeks.

'Wicked.' The red haired twins looked in awe as Harry seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. Lucky for him he was saved by the twins' mother calling them from the platform. They glanced at Harry and then nodded to Toshiro and me before jumping out of the train to go to their mother. Harry sighed in relief that the twins had left and moved into the compartment. I went in too and sat down next to him while Toshiro sat down across from me, leaving the seat opposite Harry empty. We remained silent after that and stayed that way even when the train started moving. A few seconds after we left the station the compartment door was opened to reveal one of the red haired boys. This time it was the one who was the last to go through the barrier. 'Hi… can I sit here? Everywhere else is full,' he muttered the last part. I looked at Harry to say something but he didn't so I sighed and replied, 'Yes of course.'

The boy looked relieved, put his trunk in the luggage rack with Toshiro's help and sat down opposite Harry. 'Are you really… I mean… my brothers…' Ron was stuttering by now but luckily Harry seemed to understand what he wanted to know. 'Yes, I'm really Harry Potter,' he said with a small, embarrassed grin on his face. 'Wow… and do you… do you have the uhm…' 'Scar?' Harry finished for him. The boy just nodded while staring at Harry's forehead. Harry pulled his hair away from his forehead to reveal the lightning bolt scar he had kept from the curse Voldemort used on him ten years ago.

'Wicked,' the redhead whispered. 'Well this is all really great, but it would be really handy if we knew your name as we do share a compartment together for the rest of the trip,' Toshiro said, drawing the attention to him in an instant. 'Alright alright, you don't have to be so grumpy,' the redhead scoffed. 'My name is Ron Weasley.' 'Yuriko Kuchiki,' I said for the umpteenth time today. 'Toshiro Hitsugaya,' Toshiro said politely. 'And before you ask. Yes we are from Japan and yes, we were born this way,' my friend added quickly before Ron could ask anything. Harry chuckled at Toshiro's behaviour which only made my white haired friend scowl.

The twins showed up again a few minutes later, just to say hi before going to a friend called Lee Jordan because of some kind of spider. Harry, Ron and I were soon caught up in a conversation about what school would be like. Toshiro didn't really participate but did add some things or asked about things that were being said every now and then. After some time a lady with a lunch trolley showed up and Harry, Toshiro and I, bought a bit of everything. Ron didn't have much money so we shared everything with him. The candy didn't taste anything like the things I was used to in Soul Society or Japan but it wasn't bad either. I could see that Toshiro had the same problem. 'Not liking the candy?' I asked in a whisper_. _'It's not that I don't like it… I just have to get used to it… you?' he whispered back. 'Same goes for me.' I could see Toshiro smirk at this, but he didn't say anymore.

Harry and Ron had opened most of the chocolate frogs by now and were eating them apparently only for the cards inside them. Wizards were weird… Soon after this a round-faced boy opened the compartment door and looked around with sad eyes. 'Has anyone seen my toad?' he asked. We all shook our heads and the boy left again. 'A toad… who would bring a toad?' Ron sniggered. 'You brought an old rat… I don't think you have a right to laugh,' Toshiro said with a smirk. 'Well, I did try to make him yellow yesterday with a spell George gave me, but mom wouldn't let me use it as I'm still under aged and shouldn't use magic outside of school,' Ron grumbled. He got up and started rummaging in his trunk and soon found what he was looking for.

He sat down with his wand in his right hand and his rat Scabbers in his left. Before he could do anything though the compartment door slid open again to reveal that round-faced boy was back. He wasn't alone this time though, the girl with bushy brown hair Toshiro and I had seen at the bank in Diagon Alley was with him. 'Has anyone seen a toad? Neville here has lost his,' the girl said in a bossy kind of tone. Toshiro sighed deeply at this which made the girl looked at him questioningly. 'We have already told Neville that we haven't seen his toad so it's no use asking again,' Toshiro sighed. The boy called Neville shuffled uncomfortably with his feet but the girl just ignored Toshiro and instead watched Ron's wand.

'Are you doing magic? Let's see it then,' she said and sat down next to me. Ron looked at Harry, Toshiro and me awkwardly before clearing his throat. 'Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow!' he said while waving his wand frantically. It didn't do anything at which the girl huffed. 'Are you sure it's a real spell?' she asked indignantly. She then launched into a story about how she had tried several spells and that they had all worked for her. I tuned her out though and saw Toshiro do the same. 'I don't know whether I'll be able to survive in this environment Yuriko,'Toshiro scoffed in Japanese so that only I could understand. I just shrugged, 'It might be hard but we have no choice but to survive it,' I replied.

I tuned into the rant of the bushy-haired girl just in time to hear her introduce herself. 'I'm Hermione Granger, what are your names?' she asked while looking at each of us in turn. I could tell Toshiro was really done with introducing himself so I did it for him. 'I'm Yuriko Kuchiki and this here is my friend Toshiro Hitsugaya.' Hermione just nodded and turned towards Ron and Harry who both introduced themselves. The moment Harry said who he was Hermione's face lit up and she was about to launch into another rant when Toshiro put a stop to it. 'Yes, he is the Harry Potter who defeated Voldemort ten years ago,' he snapped. Everyone but Harry and me gasped at Toshiro's words. 'What?' he asked, clearly still annoyed. 'You… you said his name! You said you-know-who's name!' Ron said in awe.

Hermione and Neville seemed to agree with Ron and left soon after this but not before Hermione could say we should change into our robes as we would probably arrive soon. I got up and was about to open my trunk to get my robes when the compartment door opened once again. I looked around, annoyed at being bothered again, and saw that this time three boys had entered. One was pale with sleek blond hair while the other two were broad and taller than the blond one. The blond boy looked at all of us in turn, his eyes widening when he took in Toshiro and me, before resting his sight on Harry. 'It's true then, you're Harry Potter?' he demanded. Harry nodded but didn't say anything. The boy didn't seem to mind though as he started to introduce himself and his bodyguard like friends. 'This is Crabbe and this is Goyle and my name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.'

Ron sniggered at Malfoy's name but soon stopped as Malfoy started making fun of him and his family. He then offered Harry to help him make, what he called, "good friends" but Harry refused. Unfortunately this angered Malfoy big time. 'Be careful Potter, if you hang around with losers like Weasley and that oaf Hagrid it'll rub off on you,' Malfoy spat. 'That's it… Hado no ichi, Sho!' I whispered too soft for the others to hear. Malfoy and his goons shot backwards out of the compartment as my kido hit them. Toshiro, knowing what had happened, closed the door with a smirk on his face. 'What was that?' Harry asked, shocked. Toshiro and I just shrugged, but Harry kept looking at us suspiciously for the rest of the ride to school.

When the train finally stopped at a small station near a village called Hogsmeade I was glad to get away from Harry's stares. A voice said that we had to leave our luggage on the train as it would be brought to the school separately so we only grabbed our cloaks and went outside. 'Firs' years! Firs' years over here!' I turned around to see a very large man with bushy hair, an even bushier beard and glinting, black beetle like eyes heading towards us. 'Harry, good to see yeh again. I see yeh made some friends.' The giant looked at the four of us with a happy look in his eyes. 'Hi Hagrid! These are my friends Ron, Yuriko and Toshiro. I cringed a bit when Harry used mine and Toshiro's first names like that and I could see Toshiro do the same. I guess we would have to get used to the fact that people will call us by our first names instead of our surnames.

'Another Weasley and two foreigners no less! Welcome to Hogwarts!' the giant called Hagrid boomed happily. He then once again started herding the first years together. He took us to a lake where a whole lot of boats were waiting for us and where we had a view of Hogwarts castle. Everyone let out a loud 'Oooooh!' at the sight of the castle before they started getting in the boats. 'No more'n four to a boat!' Hagrid called.

Harry and Ron got into a boat and before Toshiro and I could get in after them Hermione and Neville stepped in. Ron looked annoyed at this and Harry gave us an apologetic look before the boat took off. We stepped into the next boat and to our great annoyance Malfoy and one of his bodyguards, I think Goyle, got in with us. 'Great, we're with the weirdoes,' Malfoy spat. 'Look who's talking,' I hissed back. 'What did you say? I'm not the one with white hair or fake red hair with blue in it,' Malfoy laughed. I gritted my teeth but didn't say anything back. However Toshiro had a different idea. 'Bakudo no ichi, Sai,' he hissed only loud enough for me to hear. A second later Malfoy let out a yelp as his hands snapped together on his back. He tried to get his arms back in front of him but of course he failed. I held in my laughter as the blond haired boy started to panic. Goyle tried to help him but the only thing he managed to do was lose his balance and fall in the water.

Sadly Hagrid picked the large boy out of the water again and put him back in our boat. We continued the boat ride to the castle in relative quiet though we still had a panicking Malfoy with us who just wouldn't stay still. Toshiro lifted the Bakudo from Malfoy when it was time to get out of the boat and the boy didn't know how fast he had to get away from us. Toshiro and I soon found Harry and Ron again and then followed Hagrid as he led us to the front doors of the castle where a stern looking witch was waiting for us. 'The firs' years, Professor McGonagall,' Hagrid said. 'Thank you Hagrid. I will take it from here,' she said. Hagrid gave us one more look before walking past us into the school.

Professor McGonagall motioned for us to follow her into the school. There was a doorway on the right through which we could hear the voices of the other students, but McGonagall let us away from that and into a small room to the side. She closed the door behind the last first years who entered before turning towards us. 'Welcome to Hogwarts. The beginning of the year feast will start in a few moments but before that each of you will be sorted into one of the four Hogwarts houses. The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. The house you will be sorted into will be like your family. Triumphs will earn you points while rule-breaking will lose you points. The house with the most points at the end of the year will win the House cup,' she explained. Everyone nodded at her words but stayed quiet. 'The ceremony will start soon; I'll come and get you when we're ready.' And with that she went out of the room and left us there with our own thoughts.

Everyone started whispering about the sorting immediately. Ron was talking to Harry about Fred telling him we would have to do some kind of test while Hermione was reciting spells she had read in the books. 'What do you think this whole sorting thing is?' I asked Toshiro quietly. 'I don't know, but I doubt it will be a test about spells from the books as we haven't learned anything yet.' He mumbled back. Before I could reply I could feel a large amount of reiatsu coming our way fast. Toshiro tensed next to me and I could see him gripping his gikongan inside a pocket of his robes. I gripped mine too, ready for use, when a horde of spirits came bursting through the walls of the room.

'Oh my, first years how lovely!' one of the spirits said. To my great surprise all the first years looked at the spirits as if they could really see them. 'I hope I'll see a lot of you in Hufflepuff,' a fat Friar kind of spirit said, looking fondly at all of us. 'And who might you two be?' I spun around only to come face to face with a spirit covered in transparent blood. This wasn't what worried me though, the thing that worried me was that his soul chain was around him and the hole was slightly open. This wouldn't be a problem as of yet but if anything happened to it this spirit would turn into a hollow. 'We are first years,' Toshiro said calmly though I could see that he was looking at the chain as well. 'We'll see about that,' the spirit spat and before we could say anything more to him he flew off.

'We'd better keep an eye on that one,' Toshiro muttered. I nodded in agreement. The other spirits still had normal spirit chains but still, it would be better to give them a soul burial. I had to admit that that one spirit was pretty brave. Spirits could always sense that we were something different and the spirits who didn't want to move on yet always avoided us like the other spirits in this room were doing. We didn't have long to think about any of this though because just then Professor McGonagall came back. She told us to form a line and with that said, she walked out of the room again, motioning for us to follow her.

We entered what Hermione said was the great hall, as she had read about it in one of her many books. She then started talking about what was so special about the hall, but I decided to tune her out again. Professor McGonagall led us past four long tables filled with students only to have us stop in front of a fifth table at which the teachers were seated. In front of the head table stood a three legged stool with an old hat perched on top of it. I heard the other first years whisper to each other that they didn't understand why the old hat was there. The hat however wasn't a normal hat. I could feel a low reiatsu come from it as if a soul was trapped inside. I quickly made a mental note to look into it and maybe even safe the trapped soul. Then Professor McGonagall took out a large scroll and told us to come forth when our name was called to try on the hat which would then sort us into our respective houses.

'Granger, Hermione.' McGonagall called and I saw the talkative girl walk up and try the hat on. A second later the hat called out 'GRYFFINDOR!' and the girl went to sit at the Gryffindor table. It was interesting to see that the colour of the uniforms changed as the witch or wizard was sorted. The collar and tie would turn into the colours of the house. 'Hitsugaya, Toshiro.' Toshiro sighed and walked over to the small stool. The hat took longer with Toshiro than with the ones before him but eventually it called 'GRYFFINDOR!' Toshiro got up and walked to the Gryffindor table as his uniform changed colours. The name calling continued and the line of first years became shorter and shorter.

'Kuchiki, Yuriko.' I heaved a sigh and walked up to the stool. McGonagall motioned for me to sit down on the stool before putting the hat on my head. I immediately heard a voice in my head and I could feel that the trapped soul was trying to communicate with me. '_I see, another dead one eh?' _the soul said. '_Yep, I would guess you would know that my friend and I are dead. How come you're trapped in this hat?'_ I asked, not really caring that the others in the hall were waiting right now. '_I volunteered to do this young shinigami,'_ the hat said. I was a bit taken aback that he knew I was a shinigami but didn't think too much of it. This soul had probably been around for quite some time and therefore knew about a lot of things.

'_I'm happy at the moment as this was what I was meant to do. The moment I want to leave this place I will do so and one of you can find me for a soul burial,'_ the head told me, effectively ending my plans to save him from this prison. '_Fine, just tell me in which house you're going to put me,'_ I grumbled. I thought I heard the soul snigger but I dismissed this as I felt him coming to a conclusion. 'GRYFFINDOR!' the hat called. McGonagall pulled the hat from my head and I made my way to the Gryffindor table where Toshiro was waiting for me. Halfway there my uniform changed colour so that my tie and the cuff of my robe were now a deep read with a bit of gold.

'Malfoy, Draco.' McGonagall called next and the pale blond boy stepped forward. The moment the hat touched his head it called 'SLYTHERIN!' as if it didn't need time to think at all. Malfoy smirked and walked to the Slytherin table as his collar and tie changed into the green and silver of the Slytherin house. His two goons greeted him as they had already been sorted into Slytherin.

'Potter, Harry.' I sat up a bit straighter as this would be important. As Toshiro and I were both in Gryffindor it would make our job a whole lot easier when Harry would be sorted into Gryffindor as well. It took the hat longer than with the others to sort Harry and I could see the boy muttering to himself. 'GRYFFINDOR!' the hat finally called and Harry let out a sigh in relief as he joined Toshiro and me at the Gryffindor table. It took a bit longer for the room to quieten down, mostly because the Weasley twins kept yelling 'We've got Potter', but in the end all was quiet again and the sorting continued.

To his delight Ron became a Gryffindor as well and when the last first year was finally sorted McGonagall took the stool and hat away and Dumbledore got up. He welcomed everyone and said a couple of weird words after which everyone clapped. Toshiro and I shrugged at each other, no really getting why everyone was clapping for these weird words, before piling food on our plates. The moment the headmaster had said his weird assortment of words the food had appeared and everyone started eating. Harry was looking at everything in awe and had soon piled a bit of everything on his plate.

While eating I glanced around the room a lot and noticed that both Shiro and I were getting quite a few stares. Those not staring at us would be staring at Harry but said boy wasn't paying any attention to it as he was completely focussed on his plate. The teachers at the staff table were looking our way as well. The headmaster looked at us with a strange twinkle in his eyes and McGonagall was leaning towards the headmaster and was talking to him while looking at me. At the far end of the table Quirrell sat talking to himself when a greasy haired teacher said down next to him.

'Who is that?' Harry asked as he was looking at the same teacher I was. He had been talking to Percy about who the teachers were and as I was kind of interested in the greasy teacher myself I decided to listen to Percy's explanation. 'That's professor Snape. He's the potions master,' Percy replied. 'He's wanted the Defence Against the Dark Arts job for years and hates about every teacher who comes to teach said subject,' Fred interjected with a grin. Harry turned his gaze on Snape and said teacher glared back at him. 'Ow,' Harry exclaimed as he grabbed his forehead. 'What's wrong, Harry?' Ron asked concerned.

As everyone else was fussing over Harry's pain I looked at the staff table to see that Quirrell had turned around. I could feel the reiatsu from him increasing for a second before the teacher turned around again and the reiatsu went down. I looked at Toshiro and knew he had sensed the same; we really had to keep an eye on Quirrell and maybe find out why he's wearing the turban.

Once everyone had finished their food the plates became clean again and Dumbledore told everyone the school rules before telling us to sing the school song. Both Toshiro and I refused to do this and instead sat there in horror as the rest of the school began to sing. Everyone used their own tune and tone which meant that together it sounded as if nails were being scraped on a blackboard. When everyone had finally finished, Fred and George were last, Percy got up and started herding the first years to follow him through the castle to the common room. Toshiro sighed and I knew why, we were kind of done for the day with being treated like children when we were in fact over a hundred years old.

'Psst, this way,' I looked behind me and saw George grinning at me. Fred was standing a bit further behind him with the same grin on his face. I quickly grabbed Toshiro's arm and dragged him with me as the twins walked in the opposite direction of prefect Percy and his bossy manner of speaking. 'Aoi-chan, where are you dragging me?' Toshiro hissed. 'We're going with the twins,' I told him cheerfully as we walked into the entrance hall. 'That's going against the rules,' Toshiro huffed but he didn't really sound like he meant it. 'Rules are there so that the really clever people can break them,' Fred said knowingly.

I let go of Toshiro's arm and went to stand next to George who was watching the other first years climb the stairs. 'They're just so… tiny,' Fred said as if this was a shock to him. 'We were never that tiny, were we George?' 'Sure weren't,' George replied smugly. 'I'm quite positive you were,' Toshiro said in a bored tone. 'So… where do we go?' I asked as I had no idea where the Gryffindor common room was. 'Right this way, my new foreign friends,' Fred said with a bow. Toshiro and I both rolled our eyes at the childish behaviour but followed the twins nonetheless.

We climbed several stairs, walked through openings which pretended to be a solid walls and went through a lot of secret passages ways until we finally arrived at a large portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress. 'You are late,' the lady said sternly. I looked questioningly at George who rolled his eyes. 'Leave this to me,' he muttered. 'Caput Draconis,' he said out loud and while still grumbling at us, the fat lady made the portrait swing forward, revealing a round hole in the wall. We all climbed through to be met by a very angry looking Percy. 'Where have you been?' he fumed at the four of us. 'We took a little detour,' Toshiro said matter-of-factly. 'You are first years. You were supposed to follow me not them,' Percy said through gritted teeth while glaring at his brothers. 'Percy, bro, give it u-u-up,' George said while yawning. Percy spluttered a bit more but we all just ignored him and went to the staircases that led to the different dormitories.

'He doesn't really look like an authority figure now does he?' I whispered to Fred and George. 'Nope, but he likes to think that he is,' Fred said a bit amused. 'And we are here to make sure his road to authority will have lots of obstacles,' George said proudly before both of them ran upstairs to their room. Percy soon followed and completely ignored us while muttering to himself about annoying brothers. 'This is going to be a long year,' Toshiro sighed when we heard the door close somewhere above us. 'I guess you're right but I think that those Weasley twins will make sure that it won't be boring,' I replied with a grin. 'Yeah, they have your kind of humour… I guess it could be fun,' Toshiro smirked. We bade each other a goodnight and parted ways. I went up to the girls' dormitory and Toshiro to the boys' dormitory. I was sure tomorrow was going to interesting if only because we had to spend our day with people over a hundred years younger than us.

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><p><strong>Please please please review! I would mean a lot to me!<strong>

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**~Marieke~**


	4. Nightly expeditions

**Thank you for all the reviews! and also thanks to the ones who put this story on alert or added it to their favourite list ^_^**

**Here's the next chapter from Toshiro's POV. It's a nice long chapter so I hope you'll all enjoy it :)**

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><p><strong>Toshiro POV<strong>

Sleeping in a bed was not something I was used to. It was way too fluffy for comfort and I was already wishing I had a futon to sleep on. Another problem in the room was the snoring which came from two of the five other beds. One of them was Ron and the other one the round faced boy called Neville who had lost his toad on the train.

Halfway through the night I decided to give up on sleeping and went downstairs to be met by Yuriko who was sleeping in one of the armchairs. I walked up to her as quietly as possible and poked her in her side. 'Aah!' she yelled and she grabbed at the thin air where her zanpakuto normally was. 'Crap,' she muttered as her fingers only found thin air. 'Don't do that, Shiro,' she growled as she glared at me.

I plopped down on the chair opposite Yuriko and stared at the now smouldering fire. 'Couldn't sleep either?' Yuriko asked after a while. 'No, the bed is too fluffy and two boys in my room can't sleep without sawing through a rainforest at the same time,' I sighed. 'It was just the bed for me… oh, and Granger who was muttering parts of our textbooks in her sleep.' We sat in silence, like we often did, for another few minutes. 'We could go walk around the castle and see what we can find out about that Quirrell guy,' I suggested when I was done with staring at the fire. 'Sure, why not. It's not like we're going to be able to sleep.'

I pulled out my gikongan and plopped a pill into my mouth. A second later my shinigami form emerged from my gigai and it felt great. I had to admit that these gigai were better than the usual ones but it still felt better to be in my shinigami form. Yuriko was in shinigami form as well by now and was stretching her body before grabbing her zanpakuto from her back and just holding it. We both had our zanpakuto's on our backs as they were too large for us to wear at our hips. This might change when our bodies would grow, but for now this would have to do. Not that it bothered either of us as we were used to it.

We instructed our konpaku, who were now in our gigai, that they had to go to our dorms and stay there. They both nodded and bowed to us before walking upstairs towards our respective dorms. Yuriko pushed the portrait away and we both climbed out. The fat lady in the portrait looked confused at the spot where we were standing. 'Must be the wind,' she muttered after looking around a bit. She swung her portrait back again and closed her eyes to go to sleep.

I nudged Yuriko and started walking down the corridor. Quirrell's office was a few floors below us so I went to the first staircase I could find and jumped down. I landed silently on the floor below and a second later Yuriko landed next to me. We ran through the castle and passed several teachers who were patrolling the corridors for students who might sneak out of bed. I thought I saw some of them look up when we ran passed but that had to be an illusion; no one could see us now.

We used shunpo a couple of times and soon found ourselves at the door of professor Quirrell's office. I tried the door, but it was locked which meant we would have to go the long way around. Yuriko had already thought of this as I felt a cold breeze come through a now opened window. We jumped outside and used our reiatsu to stay airborne as we made our way to Quirrell's office window. The room had three windows and one of them was open which made entering without making a noise that much easier.

I motioned for Yuriko to go on ahead and check whatever was in his desk as I made my way down the spiral staircase and into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. I walked straight to the teacher's desk and started going through the various drawers in search of something suspicious but didn't find anything. 'Shiro-kun, I think I've found something,' Yuriko called from upstairs. I flashed to her side to see that she was holding some pieces of parchment with scribbles on them. Each of them had a date at the top and it appeared they were all from August this year. 'Take a look at this one,' Yuriko said. She handed me the top piece and continued with reading through the others herself. I started reading the parchment and didn't really know what to make of it. This looked like some kind of journal from his holiday but then the thriller version of it.

"_As I walked deeper into the forest I could tell that something was wrong. The animals weren't making a sound or maybe that was just because there were no animals. Some of the people in the village had warned me not to go into this forest but I had to. This forest had been on my travel list for so long that I couldn't just ignore it. It is supposed to be full of magical creatures and I want to find as much of them as I can. Maybe I can learn something from them for my classes this year. _

_As I'm sitting on the forest floor writing this the everlasting silence around me seems to thicken. It might just be my imagination but I was sure I saw something move a second ago, but now everything is as it was before. I'm going to try and get some sle…"_

That's where the short story on this parchment ended and I had a feeling that the reason he stopped was written on the next pages. I nudged Yuriko to give me the next one which she did without looking up. _"He tells me everything is going to be alright. That he will never hurt me and I believe him. He needs me as much as I need him and I'm proud that he trusts me so much to let me carry him with me. The only catch is that I can't tell anyone about him, but that isn't going to be a problem. I've already gotten the turban from my earlier trip so I can just wear that so no one will see him." _A few lines are left over before he continued in a much sloppier scribble.

"_He asked me to help him and I did, he asked me to hide him and I did, but what he is asking now is something so revolting and morally wrong that I'm thinking that I might have made a mistake. It is a crime to do what he asks of me and yet… I have no choice. He controls me and his need for this one thing is too great for me to ignore. I don't want to do it but I have to. I just hope no one will ever find out."_ Another few blank lines and after that the handwriting got even worse. _"I'm back in Britain and people are starting to notice things. After my time in the forest and doing things I wished I hadn't done have made me skittish and afraid. I'm stuttering more than ever and I just don't know what to do. He tells me to just make up a story about how a vampire scared me so much in Albania that I've become like this. Maybe I should just do that… I once again don't have any other choice. It's just for a little longer as he will be able to live on his own soon enough."_

Yuriko handed me the final piece of parchment on which the handwriting had become so bad that I had to do my best to make out the words. _"I met him… the one he's after. It was an honour to meet him… but he tells me not to think like that… It hurts… it hurts the longer he stays with me, but I can't do anything about it. I have been getting him what he needs, but it doesn't seem to sustain him for as long as it once did. People will get suspicious if I keep this up. I'll be going back to the castle soon and I just hope that the headmaster won't notice anything. He says that it will all be fine and that we'll get what we are looking for soon. I guess I have no choice but to trust him."_

I put the parchment down and shook my head. This wasn't good at all. Whoever Quirrell had taken with him from his vacation was up to no good. We had to find out where this person was and get rid of him. 'Let's see what else we can find,' Yuriko suggested. I nodded and went back to the classroom to see if I could find something. I looked through all the cupboards en desks but there was nothing I could find that mind indicate who the man was that Quirrell had taken with him.

'Master, I hope this was enough for the coming weeks?' A hesitant voice asked from the corridor. My head snapped to the door and before I could call her Yuriko appeared at my side. 'It seems that he's taken his little friend with him,' Yuriko mused. I nodded and remained quiet to hear more of the conversation. The conversation had stopped though as the lock was turned and the door to the classroom opened. Quirrell entered the room on his own and closed the door behind him without letting anyone else in. He was about to turn around when something seemed to stop him. 'A presence? What kind of presence?' Quirrell asked to the thin air before him. He spun around and his eyes darted towards the spot where Yuriko and I were standing. 'I can't see anything, master,' he squeaked. 'We'd better get out of here,' Yuriko whispered. I nodded and we both ran upstairs and jumped out of the office window before Quirrell or his invisible friend could do anything.

We raced back to the Gryffindor tower using shunpo to go faster and I was relieved when we were once again standing in the common room. The fire had gone completely out by now and Setsuna had found a sleeping spot on one of the armchairs. We said our goodnights at the staircase and I walked upstairs at a normal speed. My konpaku was lying on my bed and I stepped into it gratefully. We had learned a few things tonight which we had to tell sotaicho-dono. I was sure Shota would be up for a little trip so sending a letter first thing tomorrow morning wouldn't be a problem.

I had no idea when I had fallen asleep on my too-soft-for-comfort bed, but what I did know was that I was woken up by my five roommates' overly excited screams. 'Wake up, Toshiro! Today is our first day of classes!' Harry yelled happily over the calls and screams from the others. 'You don't have to yell "wake up" when everyone is already acting like alarm clocks,' I growled as I untangled myself from my sheets. 'You're not really a morning person, are you?' Ron asked while trying to pull his pants over his head. 'No, I'm just not into the whole childish-screaming-when-you-wake-up thing,' I retorted. Ron huffed and wanted to response but got distracted by his failure at dressing.

'Toshiro… we are still children,' Harry said as if this justified their behaviour. 'Then I guess I'm just more mature than you guys are.' I heard Ron snort at this remark which made me grin. They had no idea how much more mature I was compared to them. I quickly dressed, went down to the common room and wrote a letter for sotaicho-dono about what Yuriko and I had found out last night. By the time I had finished the others came trooping down in single file. It amazed me how they clustered together like that and I wondered whether they were going to do so the entire school year.

I nodded to all of them and headed to the portrait hole. 'Aren't you going to wait for Yuriko?' Neville asked. 'I think she'll be able to find the Great Hall on her own, so no,' I replied without looking back. I went to the owlery to find Shota but the bird wasn't there. Cursing the fact that my communicator wasn't working I walked back down towards the Great Hall where breakfast would be served. I quickly located Yuriko and went to sit next to her. 'Did you use Shota to send a message?' I asked while grabbing a piece of toast. 'No, why?' 'I wanted to send a letter about what we had found out but Shota wasn't in the owlery,' I shrugged and took a bite of the toast. 'Maybe he went hunting. He should be back by lunch time so let's try to send it then,' Yuriko suggested.

The others from the first year arrived then as a herd of sheep which ended our conversation. While everyone, including Yuriko, was talking excitingly about the first day of school I let my eyes wander around the Great Hall. All the younger students were talking excitingly about the first school day while the older ones were just quietly eating breakfast or reading the paper. The staff at the high table was talking quietly amongst themselves and only Quirrell and Snape were quiet without looking at anyone. As I took another bite of my toast a rustling sound caught my attention and I looked up to see a massive amount of owls flying into the Great Hall. They all circled above us until they found their respective owner and flew towards him or her to give a letter or parcel.

I soon spotted Shota's yellowish feathers between all the brown and he was carrying something with him. He soon spotted me as well and swooped down. The bird landed gracefully on my shoulder and held out his leg to me so that I could take off whatever it was he was carrying. I quickly took it off and looked at it to see that it was the same newspaper other students were reading as well. 'Why did you―' I started to ask when Yuriko snatched the paper from my hands. 'I thought this was the best way to keep up with things that are going on in the magical world. If anything out of the ordinary happens it will probably be in the paper,' Yuriko explained quickly before burying her nose in the paper.

Shota hooted happily, probably at having delivered the paper successfully, and dipped his beak in my goblet of pumpkin juice. I didn't really mind as the orange substance wasn't one of my favourite drinks. I quickly pulled out my letter to Yamamoto sotaicho and attached it to Shota's leg. He gave me what I could only describe as a questioning look and I quickly whispered Urahara's address to him. The lady at the owl store had told me that the owls in the wizarding world understood spoken addresses as well as written so I assumed that telling Shota Urahara's address would do. Shota hooted happily again, nibbled at my ear once and then took off into the air and was out of one of the upper windows in the blink of an eye.

'Anything interesting in the paper?' I asked a bit distracted as I was looking for a teapot somewhere. They probably didn't have any green tea, but some normal tea should be here, right? This was Britain for crying out loud. They couldn't survive without tea. 'Nothing special. Just normal, everyday things,' Yuriko sighed. She folded the paper and handed me a teapot which I had apparently overlooked. 'Thanks,' I muttered as I poured the hot liquid into my cup and added a bit of sugar and milk.

Professor McGonagall came by then with the timetables and an overexcited Hermione squealed happily before grabbing her bag and racing off to her first lesson. Others soon followed her example, though less enthusiastically, and soon we were all waiting in front of our first ever magic lesson which was Transfiguration. 'I hope we'll get to transfigure something. I've studied all the books and am certain I know how to do it,' Hermione was saying to no one in particular. I rolled my eyes and leaned over to Yuriko. 'We've read all the books and are certain we can do it, but why tell the rest of the class all the time?' I wondered quietly. To my surprise it was Ron who answered me. 'Because she wants to show everyone how perfect she is,' He grumbled. Harry sniggered at his friend's comment, but couldn't reply as McGonagall took that moment to open the door to her classroom and let all of us in.

The lesson was quiet easy and as both Yuriko and I had expected we knew everything. McGonagall was a strict teacher and the head of Gryffindor house, but that didn't mean she favoured any of her students. We did earn some house points by answering her questions right and because Hermione, Yuriko and I were able to transfigure our objects perfectly while the rest of the class wasn't even close to achieving this.

The rest of the week went by at about the same pace. I got used to sleeping in the warm, fluffy bed and wasn't disturbed by my snoring dorm mates anymore either. His was because Yuriko had found a spell in one of the third year books that the Weasley twins had left in the common room that would silence any sounds that came near its caster. The lessons were interesting as well. Charms, which was given by a midget of some sort, was actually a fun lesson as we could use a lot of magic. Astronomy was interesting as was History of Magic though the teacher of the latter was quite boring. At Defence Against the Dark Arts we kept a close watch on Quirrell, but we couldn't find anything dodgy about him other then the nervous breakdown he seemed to be having every couple of seconds.

The last lesson of the week was potions from none other than Snape. Yuriko and I had already decided that he wouldn't be our favourite teacher mostly because he just treated us like small children. I know that we looked like that and that everybody else in our year actually were children, but none of the other teachers treated us the way Snape did. He would take points from Gryffindor for no apparent reason and looked at Yuriko and I as if we were freaks of nature. Yuriko had snapped earlier this week when Snape told her to move out of the way by just saying "move!". She had refused to move until he at least made it into a question which caused Snape to glare and take ten points from our house. Yuriko had moved out of the way and had focussed her reiatsu a little. That was enough to cause a small pool of water to come into existence just in front of Snape. I got the hint and added a bit of my own reiatsu to freeze the water. Snape, being completely full of himself, didn't notice and slipped brilliantly onto his back.

My trip down memory lane was interrupted by the arrival of said teacher. Snape glared at all the Gryffindors and gave a slimy smile to all the Slytherins with whom we had this lesson. I followed Harry and Ron into the classroom and sat down at one of the desks in the back of the room. Yuriko went to sit next to Harry on the other side and we quickly pulled out our books, quills and such. Snape was meanwhile writing all sorts of things on the blackboard with his wand. I didn't really care what he was writing and instead focussed on the different items in this classroom. There were different cabinets with potion ingredients and there were several shelves with cauldrons and books. Nothing that seemed to be dangerous so I dismissed the classroom from my head and turned back to Snape who had now finished writing and was looking at his students with and evil grin.

As everyone finally settled down, Neville was the last, Snape moved in front of his desk. 'Put your wands away and keep your books closed. Grab a piece of parchment and a quill so you'll be able to take notes,' Snape ordered in a low voice. I heard Yuriko grumble something about being treated like a child while she took out her parchment and quill. 'I already dislike him,' Harry mumbled next to me and I nodded in agreement. Snape was definitely not my favourite teacher though I had to admit that he would be quite a good captain of the twelfth division in soul society as he was about as creepy and slimy as Kurotsuchi taicho.

'In this room,' Snape continued, 'you will learn how to brew various potions. Some good, some bad and some might even be lethal.' He walked through the room at a slow pace, checking whether we were all writing down what he was saying. He stopped in front of our table and smirked down at Harry. 'Harry Potter. Our new celebrity,' Snape said with obvious venom in his voice. Harry looked up at Snape in an innocent and questioning way. 'Tell me, mister Potter. Where would I look if I wanted a bezoar and what does said bezoar do?' Snape asked menacingly. 'I don't know, sir,' Harry answered truthfully. Snape smirked and looked around to see if anyone else found this amusing as well. Of course Malfoy and his little bodyguards were smirking and pointing at Harry, but the rest of the class just watched what was going on between Harry and Snape.

Snape began asking more questions to Harry at which the boy only replied with an "I don't know, sir". Meanwhile Hermione had her hand up in the air as far as possible and I was sure she knew the answers to every question Snape threw at Harry. 'Sir, if you want the answers I think Hermione can give them to you,' Yuriko said calmly. Snape immediately turned his attention to Yuriko. 'I did not ask for your opinion miss Kuchiki. Five points from Gryffindor and miss Granger, please put your hand down you look like a fool.'

The rest of the lesson went by as normally as it could. Snape gave us instructions for a potion that would cure boils if it was brewed correctly and told us to work on it in pairs. As I was sitting next to Harry I was paired up with him. We quickly began cutting up our ingredients and mixing the potion while Snape moved around the dungeon and corrected Gryffindors when they did something wrong and praising the Slytherins when they did something good or wrong; it didn't matter with them. 'I see the two foreigners know how to make a potion,' He commented when he passed our table. Yuriko looked up from her potion to smirk at Snape, but didn't say anything. Snape glared back at her and it was only because Goyle called him that he moved away from our table.

When the lesson was finally over we quickly packed our bags and walked back up to the entrance hall. 'What a git. How the hell did he ever become a teacher?' Ron ranted as we walked up to Gryffindor tower to dump our bags. 'He knows what he's talking about so I guess he was hired for his knowledge instead of his people skills.' Yuriko answered with a shrug. 'Hear hear.' Ron called. A huff from behind me made me turn around to see Hermione coming towards us. 'What are you huffing about?' Ron asked annoyed. 'Nothing, just that professor Snape is probably a great teacher if we gave him the benefit of a doubt,' she said knowingly. 'Of course he is,' Harry said while rolling his eyes. Hermione huffed again and stalked off towards the Gryffindor tower, leaving us behind on the staircase. 'She's seriously mental, that one,' Ron whispered.

We made our way to the common room faster than usual, with the help of some secret passageways that Yuriko and I had found on our nightly expeditions, and were heading out the moment Hermione entered. 'How did you…' she trailed off at the end and looked at us questioningly. 'It's not that hard to figure out, you know,' I told her. 'Fine, don't tell me. See me care,' She huffed. As she walked off towards the girls dormitories Harry turned towards Yuriko and me. 'Hagrid asked whether we would like to come over. I told him yes, but I can't speak for you guys of course.' 'We kind of planned something else, but we'll try to join you after that,' I said. 'That's cool, see you guys later than,' Ron said happily. He and Harry left the common room to go to Hagrid and I turned to Yuriko. 'Ready for some practise?' I asked with a grin. 'You bet.'

We trained until dark, but had to return to the castle if we didn't want to miss dinner for which we were already late. When we finally returned to the common room we were met by a large crowd standing around the notice board. 'We're going to have our first flying lesson next week!' Ron told us happily. 'Flying on a piece of wood… that should be fun,' Yuriko muttered only loud enough for me to hear. I chuckled quietly and sat down in one of the good armchairs. Setsuna jumped on my lap and curled up there while purring contently. 'I guess it could actually be fun, but I doubt it's faster or better than using Shunpo,' I shrugged as Yuriko sat down opposite me. 'Anyway, that's next week. Right now, we have to finish that essay Snape gave us about potion basics.' Yuriko nodded and we went to grab our bags from our rooms. When we got back both Ron and Harry were sitting in the good chairs and were working on their own essays. Yuriko and I joined them on the floor and started as well. We were finished quickly though and enjoyed watching both boys struggling with their essays until Yuriko took pity on them and helped where she could.

We spend the weekend in the library or common room. Not so much for Yuriko or me, but because Harry and Ron had some homework to finish and as we had to keep an eye on Harry we were forced to join him in reading through books and, in our case, pretending to study. The thought of learning to fly kind of distracted both boys which meant that they had a lot to do on Sunday night. As we didn't think anything would happen to Harry in a crowded common room, Yuriko and I decided to go on another patrol around the school. This time we went to bed early and ordered our konpaku to just stay in bed and sleep, or at least pretend to sleep. We walked around the school more freely in our shinigami form as no one could see us and decided that it might be a good idea to check out Snape this time. He didn't really seem to be a threat to Harry other than putting him on the spot during potions, but we couldn't be too sure.

His office was dark and creepy and I had to suppress a shiver that ran down my spine. Snape had jars filled with whatever lined on shelves against the wall and each jar contained an animal of some sort which was suspended in some kind of liquid. His desk was full of papers and vials and he had different samples of things in his drawers. We searched for anything that might help us protect Harry, but in the end we didn't find anything remotely interesting other than the fact that Snape was a creepy guy.

We made our way back to Gryffindor tower by using shunpo, but stopped as someone called "who's there?" into our direction. It was a standard reflex to stop whenever someone called that to you, but it took us less than a second to realise that whoever had said it couldn't have been calling it to us. No one could see us in our spirit form. We climbed out the window closest to the tower and used shunpo to get to the window that would lead to the common room. We were surprised to find Harry and Ron asleep in the same armchairs they had been in before we left. Both of them still had their essay on the table in front of them and were leaning with their heads on it. I walked over to them and glanced at the portion of the essay that wasn't covered with a head. 'They really need to study more,' I chuckled as I could spot a lot of mistakes with just one glance at Ron's paper. 'This one isn't that bad though it could be improved,' Yuriko commented as she looked at Harry's paper. 'Let's go upstairs, get back into our gigai's and wake them up. Sleeping like this can't be good for their necks.' 'You go as it would be strange for me to know they didn't go to bed yet,' Yuriko yawned. I rolled my eyes at her, but had to admit she was right about that.

I quickly ran upstairs and found my konpaku on my bed while pretending to be asleep. I quickly got in and caught the pill that sprang from my mouth. I walked back to the common room quietly and woke Ron who was drooling over his essay by now. 'Wut? Wa's happening,' he mumbled. 'Toshiro? What're you doing at my house?' I chuckled at his sleepy comments and shook him again. This time his eyes sprang open and he jumped up from his seat. 'What's going on?' he exclaimed. 'Shush, nothing's going on. You were drooling all over your essay and I thought it might be a good idea to wake you up before it became unreadable,' I told him. Ron looked at his essay and back at me, 'Thanks man… I owe you,' he mumbled. He then walked over to Harry and shook him hard to wake him up. 'What?' Harry asked sleepily. 'Time to actually go to bed, mate.' Ron said while trying to stifle a yawn.

Harry just nodded and we all went up to our dorm together. It took Ron only a couple of seconds before he was asleep again and snoring loudly. I lay awake for a bit longer as I was thinking about what we had learned in this past week. Even though Harry said that Snape hated him for some reason, it was Quirrell that was more suspicious so far.

The next week arrived rather quickly and before we knew it we were all standing in the courtyard with the Slytherins. Next to me lay a broomstick which I eyed with disgust. Yuriko was looking the same way at her broomstick and I could guess we were both thinking the same thing, no way that we were getting on this thing. We had our own way of "flying" for which we didn't need a broomstick. Harry and Ron on the other hand were grinning from ear to ear and were almost bouncing on the spot from excitement. 'All right, listen up!' a witch with spiky grey hair and yellow eyes called. 'Welcome to your first flying lesson. My name is Madam Hooch and we will be going through the basics today so pay attention.' She walked to the middle of the row of students and looked at all of us before continuing.

'Now some of you might think you can ride a broom, but that doesn't mean you will be able to skip the basics,' Malfoy grumbled at this, 'so listen carefully. I want you all to hold your right hand over your broom and say "up". This should make your broom leap into your hand instantly. Ready? On my whistle.' Madam Hooch blew her whistle once and the courtyard erupted in shouts of "up". I sighed and said "up" in a bored way. My broom flew up instantly and I grabbed onto it quickly. I looked around then and saw that both Yuriko and Harry were also holding their broom and Harry looked extremely proud of himself. Ron was having a little more trouble with his broom which was only rolling on the ground as if it didn't want to fly up. I was also delighted to see that Malfoy, who had been bragging about being able to fly a broom perfectly, was having a lot of trouble as well. Every time he said "up" the broom moved up a few inches before falling back on the grass again.

After about five minutes everyone was finally holding their broom and waited for the next instructions. 'Alright, now that you are all holding your broom you can mount it,' Madam Hooch told us. Everyone swung their right leg over the broom handle and looked at madam Hooch for her to continue. 'When I blow my whistle you will kick off from the ground softly, hover and then lean forward a bit so that you can land. Is that clear?' We all chorused a "Yes, madam Hooch" at which madam Hooch nodded. 'Alright, ready? One, two…' but she never got to three as Neville, being too nervous, had kicked off too early and way harder than necessary and was now flying around the rooftops. This wouldn't be a problem if Neville could actually fly, but it so happened he couldn't. He was screaming and crying loudly as he tried to make his broom obey him, but to no avail. The broom just seemed to move as it pleased and it didn't look like it wanted to come down any time soon.

'He's going to fall down!' Hermione shrieked as the broom started shaking as if it was trying to get rid of its rider. I made a split decision and checked if no one was watching me. Everyone was occupied with what was going on in the sky so I took out my gikongan and plopped a pill into my mouth. The second I swallowed it I left my gigai and emerged in my spirit form. 'Stay here, look at the kid in the sky and act alarmed,' I ordered my konpaku. He nodded and did exactly what I had told him. 'Toshiro, hurry,' Yuriko whispered from beside me. I nodded and jumped into the air just as the broom finally won and dislodged Neville.

Everybody below me gasped as Neville fell down, but I caught him when he had only fallen about six feet and let us drop down at a slower pace. The only problem was that in those six feet he had managed to hit his hand on the castle wall and it seemed to be broken. Neville was screaming at the top of his lungs and had his eyes shut tight as if that would lessen the pain of the impact somehow. I slowed us down at the last second and lowered Neville to the grass. He lay there wailing and soon madam Hooch arrived to take a look at his wounds. Everyone gathered around him, even my konpaku, and I was barely able to jump up before getting stuck in the middle of all the students.

I landed next to Yuriko who was standing at the back of the group and let out a sigh in relief. 'That could have ended badly,' Yuriko commented as if she was talking about the weather. 'I guess it could have. Well, now we'll never know.' 'Out of my way, coming through!' madam Hooch barked then and the entire group opened up to reveal that Neville was standing on his own feet though madam Hooch did have to support him. 'I am taking mister Longbottom to the infirmary. Anyone I see on a broom in the mean time will be packing their bags and going back home faster than you can say Quidditch,' madam Hooch told us sternly. Everyone nodded and watched as she led Neville to the castle.

'That fat boy had it coming,' someone sneered. I looked around to see Malfoy standing in the middle of the first years. He was throwing a ball up and down and I recognized it as the remembrall Neville had gotten from his grandma this morning. 'Yuriko, that's Neville's remembrall,' I said. Yuriko nodded and made her way over to Malfoy. 'Give that back, Malfoy,' she all but ordered. A hint of the taicho she actually was shone through her features now and it made Malfoy take a step back. 'No,' Malfoy said, but he didn't sound very confident anymore. 'Give it back, Malfoy!' Harry stepped from between the other first years and came to stand next to Yuriko. Malfoy turned his attention to Potter and his smirk returned as he was more confident when facing Harry. 'No, Potter. I think I'm going to leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find it,' Malfoy sneered and he jumped on his broom and sped off into the sky.

I jumped after him immediately, but stopped when I heard Hermione's voice. 'No, you can't. You'll get expelled, Harry,' she all but pleaded. I looked back to see Harry completely ignore Hermione, mount his broom and kick off after Malfoy. I had to hand it to him, he could fly fairly well. 'Give it back, Malfoy!' Harry snapped again as he hovered in front of a slightly startled Malfoy. 'You want it? Go get it,' Malfoy turned around and tossed the remembrall away. Harry didn't hesitate at all and raced after the ball. Malfoy wanted to follow him, but that wasn't going to happen. I used Shunpo to get in front of him and quickly raised my reiatsu. It had an immediate effect on Malfoy and his broom. Malfoy began to shiver and ice started to form on his broom. This caused the Slytherin to lose control of the broom and he quickly moved downstairs and landed with a thud on the ground before he lost complete control.

No one was paying attention to him though as everyone was cheering and running towards the other side of the courtyard. With one shunpo I was above the event and saw that Harry had landed and was holding up the remembrall in victory. The victory didn't last long though as the castle doors opened and professor McGonagall came walking out. 'Harry Potter!' she called. The effect was that everyone became quiet in an instant and Harry hung his head and lowered his arm. 'Follow me,' the professor said, making no room for discussion. As Harry followed McGonagall I let myself drop to the ground and stepped back into my gigai.

Madam Hooch came back soon and we finished our flying lesson with only theory, but also with a promise that we could start flying next week. I was glad we wouldn't have to fly now and quickly put my broom away before following Ron and Yuriko to the castle. 'I wonder if Harry's going to be okay,' Ron sighed as we entered the common room. 'Ron! Toshiro! Yuriko!' We turned around to see Harry standing in front of the portrait hole with a large grin on his face. He walked over to us quickly and motioned for us to put our heads together. I sighed at the childish behaviour, but did as he asked. 'I didn't get in trouble,' Harry whispered. 'McGonagall took me to see this kid named Oliver Wood and told me I would be the new seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team!' 'Wow… then you must be the youngest player in― 'A century, according to McGonagall,' Harry finished for Ron.

As the two friends started talking about everything that had anything to do with Quidditch, I sat down in one of the good armchairs. 'Well, at least he didn't get himself expelled,' Yuriko whispered as she sat down on the floor next to me. Setsuna jumped into her lap and Yuriko started patting her automatically while looking at the fire in the hearth.

The look on Malfoy's face the next day was priceless. The young Slytherin had probably thought that Harry would have been expelled because of his actions, but nothing was less true. 'Good morning,' Harry said with a grin as he sat down next to me. 'You look overly happy today,' I commented. 'Well, I didn't get expelled, got a reward even and the look on Malfoy's face just now makes today perfect.' I grinned and shook my head and concentrated on my breakfast again. The owls with the post came in a few minutes later and today Shota was among them. He landed gracefully on Yuriko's shoulder and held out his leg so that we could take off the note that was tied around his leg. Yuriko quickly read it before passing it to me and giving Shota a few pieces of her bacon. The owl hooted happily and flew off with the rest of the owls to get some well deserved sleep.

The note came from Urahara-san and was short, but clear. It basically told us to keep up the good work and keep an eye on Quirrell. It also said that some other shinigami were looking into Quirrell's stay in Albania which might lead to some clues as to what happened to him there. I quickly put the note away and picked up the Daily Prophet that another owl had brought. 'So Potter, I see you weren't send back to those muggles after all,' a very familiar voice sneered. I looked up from the paper to see a glaring Malfoy standing next to Harry. 'What do you want, Malfoy?' Harry asked without looking up from the piece of toast he was holding. 'You and me, a duel, tonight,' Malfoy stated. 'Duels are forbidden, Malfoy,' Yuriko said in a bored tone. 'You stay out of it, freak. Just go back to wherever you came from or something. You and your white haired friend,' Malfoy sneered. I felt Yuriko's reiatsu increase slightly as Malfoy said these things and within a few seconds the sleek haired boy's clothing were wet and he was dripping on the floor. 'What the…' Malfoy turned around to see if anyone had their wand out, but everyone was just looking at him with a very amused look on their faces.

Yuriko lowered her reiatsu, stood up and left the table then. 'See you in class,' I told Harry and Ron. 'Yuriko, why did you…' I trailed off at the end as I didn't really know what to say. 'That Malfoy was just getting on my last nerve. No one insults you or me that way. We are taicho and much older than he is,' Yuriko stated. 'I know what you mean… It's frustrating to not be treated with the respect we deserve… but I have to admit that it was kind of funny to see Malfoy get soaked like that,' I chuckled. 'I shouldn't have done it though,' Yuriko sighed. The bell sounded then and we quickly made our way to the charms classroom.

That night we decided to do some investigation again. We ordered our konpaku to stay in bed and sleep and used the window in the common room to get outside. The cool air felt wonderful and I relished in it for a second. 'Let's go,' Yuriko said. We went to the closest window and snuck back inside the castle. Yuriko closed the window behind her and motioned for me to follow her when I heard voices down the hall. I held up my hand and Yuriko stopped and listened as well. The voices were those of students and to my horror I recognized Harry's voice as one of them. 'Guess we have to check it out,' Yuriko sighed.

We walked over to where the voices were coming from and saw Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville standing near the portrait of the fat lady. The only problem was that there was no fat lady in said portrait which meant that the four students weren't getting back into the tower any time soon. 'We have to go. Malfoy's waiting,' Ron hissed. 'Malfoy? You're going to that stupid dual I heard you talking about this morning?' Hermione asked indignantly. 'None of your business. Let's go, Harry.' Ron grabbed Harry's arm and started dragging him down the corridor. Hermione and Neville looked at each other for a second before following the dynamic duo as they probably didn't want to stay in the corridor alone.

The group of four led us to the trophy room where they all sat and waited. 'This night is being wasted by those idiots,' I grumbled as the seconds ticked by. 'Well, we're doing what we are supposed to do which is watch over Harry,' Yuriko said though she didn't sound happy about it either. 'What's taking him?' Ron asked in an angry whisper. 'Maybe he was too scared to show up,' Harry suggested. 'No, I think…' whatever Hermione was thinking remained unrevealed as footsteps sounded in the corridor next to the trophy room. 'Where are they, my love. Are they in here?' the sniffling voice of mister Filch asked his cat.

The effect on the small group was instant. They dashed to the other side of the room and raced through the door there. The second the door closed the other door opened to reveal Filch and Mrs. Norris. 'They were here, my dear. I know they were,' Filch wheezed. He made his way across the room towards the door where the students had just disappeared through. I acted immediately and jumped in front of the door with my right hand pointing towards Filch. 'Bakudo no kyu, Geki!' I called. A red light immediately engulfed and paralyzed Filch. His eyes bulged as he fought against the unknown and, to him, unseen force. 'Let's follow the others,' Yuriko suggested. I nodded and raced through the door that Filch was now looking and cursing at.

We followed the corridor and stopped as we came to a crossing. I concentrated and listened and heard the faint sound of footsteps to the left. 'This way,' I said and used shunpo to get to the sounds faster, knowing that Yuriko would follow. 'It won't open!' said Ron's voice from the left. 'Oh, move over,' Hermione ordered. I walked into the room the voices were coming from to see Hermione walk to a door with her wand out. 'Alohomora,' she said confidently. A click sounded through the room and with a smug grin Hermione opened the door. 'Whose there?' a greasy voice asked and I spun around to see Snape approaching fast. The others heard him too and quickly ran through the door.

Snape appeared in the doorway a few seconds later and glared inside. Yuriko pulled me a bit further into the shadows as Snape walked into the room a bit further. 'I'm sure I heard… never mind,' our greasy haired teacher muttered to himself. He shook his head and walked out of the room again while muttering something about a senile old caretaker. 'Filch must have tipped him off,' Yuriko muttered. 'I guess so. Let's just see where―' The screams of multiple voices interrupted me from what I was saying. I jumped to the door through which the four Gryffindors had just gone and wrenched it open. The next thing I knew I had to jump out of the way quickly as all four of them raced out of the chamber and into the corridor through which Snape had just disappeared.

I didn't have time to think about that though as a loud snarl from beyond the door caught my attention. I walked forward cautiously and looked into the room from which the snarling came. 'Oh my…' I let my sentence trail off as my eyes fell upon a sight I never thought I would see. A giant dog with three heads was standing in the middle of the room. He was snarling and growling at the door and saliva was dripping from his three mouths. 'That's the biggest dog I've ever seen in my entire life,' Yuriko whispered beside me. I nodded and forced myself to look away from the dog. There had to be a reason for that monster to be inside the school.

'Look! He's standing on a trapdoor,' I exclaimed. Yuriko followed my gaze and nodded. Whatever was down there must be extremely important if Dumbledore would let a dog like that guard it. 'We'll have to come back for that later then. We'd better go back to our dorms now and check whether the others all got back alright,' Yuriko said. We closed the door behind us, locked it and raced off to the closest window. The night air was once again refreshing and we took our time to get back to Gryffindor tower. I quickly wished Yuriko a goodnight and walked up to the first year dorm to see if Harry, Ron and Neville were all alright. I checked each of their beds and was relieved to see that nothing had happened to them on their way back here.

My konpaku was fast asleep as well and I had to shake him quite hard to wake him up. 'Thanks for tonight,' I told him before stepping back into my gigai and catching the konpaku pill. I lay down in my way too fluffy bed and for once sleep came quickly though I couldn't forget what we had learned tonight.

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><p><strong>Once again, let me know what you think!<strong>

**I'd like at least 5 reviews before I update again :)**

**~Marieke~**


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